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Zimbabwe Exiles Forum denounces the culture of arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture of innocent civilians
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
July 24, 2006

The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum strongly denounces the culture of arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture of innocent civilians by the state security forces in Zimbabwe. The recent reports of a police round up of 56 adults and 12 children, including infants under 5 years and their detention overnight in Bulawayo are shocking.

The victims are residents of Killarney, a squatter camp created in Bulawayo which has become home to about 150 famillies that were displaced by Operation Murambatsvina. They live under extremely squalid conditions and have absolutely no means of livelihood. Deaths due to exposure to the cold and starvation are common. Most recently two babies died and were buried on 24 July 2006.The Zimbabwean government has done nothing to alleviate the plight of this marginalized community but is ostensibly trying to weed out "criminals and misfits" from their midst. This is clearly an unfounded and insupportable labeling of the victims of a crisis that the government itself has created.

What is most disconcerting is that the detainees in this case were mostly elderly persons and young children who cannot be seriously categorized as "criminals’. These hapless victims were as is usual in cases of such unwarranted arrests being effected by the Zimbabwean state forces, detained under extremely inhumane conditions and then released without charge. The actions of the Zimbabwean government are indicative of the excesses of a regime that has become paranoid and self-important.

We are shocked that the very state machinery that supposedly safeguards and protects the rights of the ordinary and defenseless citizens of Zimbabwe has become a threat to their wellbeing. ZEF condemns in the strongest possible terms this blatant show of high-handedness and disregard for the human rights of its policing subjects by the ZRP and holds the Zimbabwean state responsible unless it denounces these actions and makes clear and definitive reparation to the victims.

Gabriel Shumba
Human Rights Lawyer and Executive Director

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