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Rights
group offices raided after demonstration
Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa
October 10, 2008
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news101008/rightsgroup101008.htm
The offices of a human
rights pressure group were raided by police on Friday, immediately
after the group held a demonstration around 11am.
About 200 members
of Restoration
of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) took to the streets of Harare
marking what they called a campaign for democracy and justice in
Zimbabwe. The demonstration itself was without incident as the police
were taken by surprise and only deployed after it had ended. According
to ROHR Information Director Edgar Chikuvire, riot police patrolled
the Harare city centre before some of the officers raided their
Alexandra Park offices, looking for the leaders who organized the
march.
Chikuvire spoke to Newsreel
while in hiding and says several other members of the group have
also gone underground. ROHR feels the power sharing accord signed
by the MDC and ZANU PF sets a very bad precedence for human rights
in the country because people are being denied the chance to get
a government of their own choosing. 'Our hopes are underpinned
in the need for people to embrace and feel passionately for the
need to be ruled by a government that will be accountable to them
simply because they chose it into power,' ROHR said in a statement.
The group also pointed
out that despite the deal being signed the country's crisis,
'continued unabated.' The group further argues that,
'Zanu-PF is making frantic efforts to retain the power that
it lost to Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC during the March 29 election,
a situation that is a direct assault on the people's power and constitutional
right to choose the leader they want.' ROHR says it's
campaign will encourage Zimbabweans to demand free and fair elections,
whose outcome will reflect the people's will.
ROHR is led by the former
MDC Chairman for the UK province, Ephraim Tapa. Several activists
run the Zimbabwe office. Last month it sponsored a High Court application
by Rodgers Chigwededza, Tinashe Gotora, Jackson Mabota, and Precious
Mateyeni, demanding that the central bank scrap cash withdrawal
limits. Justice Joseph Musakwa ruled the case was not urgent and
had to wait in line like all the other court cases. ROHR slammed
the decision saying, 'in other words we are supposed to join
another queue to stop the cash queues.'
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