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Avenues Clinic attacked as human rights violations continue
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
June 04, 2003

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is disgusted with the level of harassment, intimidation and brutality that has accompanied the week of mass action called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Arrests, assault and intimidation continue across the country. There are reports of business owners being forced to open their businesses, and local organisers and activists have been attacked and detained by members of the uniformed forces.

This week, the brutality that Zimbabweans have come to associate with mass action has exceeded even its previous limits. Two journalists were attacked in the Harare suburb of Mt Pleasant when they went to cover a story about the University of Zimbabwe students. They were assaulted, driven back into town, and taken to the police station. Rather than detaining the people who had attacked and abducted these journalists, the police took the two to their office, seized some material belonging to the agency, and held it over night. The material was later returned. This flagrant breech of journalistic freedoms is just one indication of the repression Zimbabweans must now confront. Copies of the independent Daily News have been seen torn into shreds and strewn across the streets in Harare and other towns in Zimbabwe. It is reported that pro-government youths and para-military groups are moving about major towns destroying copies of the paper and threatening people found reading it.

It is not press freedom alone which is under threat. Many of the Harare residents who have been injured in this week's wave of assaults have been treated at the Avenues Clinic in Harare. This afternoon, however, (Wednesday June 4) members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police stormed the clinic and created a panic threatening outpatients, those awaiting treatment and even Hospital staff. Victims of violence were easily identified by their bandages, and these people in particular were threatened by the police. Vehicles with number plates from the ZRP and from the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) were observed outside the clinic at this time, and at least two people were witnessed being accompanied by riot details to these vehicles. The behaviour of the ZRP instilled even more fear among people who had already been severely beaten, tortured and brutalised.

In Mbare, it is reported that one pro-democracy activist was killed when he and a Harare City Councillor were attacked by pro-government actors.

In Warren Park police reportedly fired teargas at a primary school. In Mbare, there have been reports of school children being attacked by pro-government actors when they were coming from school.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is disturbed by the increasing lack of humanity that such cases indicate. It is a damning comment on our national character if people are assaulted, and then when they seek treatment, they are further harassed by the same state agents who are supposed to "serve and protect" them. Moreover, if school children are not allowed to move freely between home and school, then as a nation we have truly reached a desperate state.

For more information:
Tel/Fax: +263 4 747817
Email: info@crisis.co.zw

Visit the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition fact sheet

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