Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Legal Monitor Issue 82
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 28, 2011

Download this document
- Acrobat PDF version (2.2MB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here

Prisoners for my birthday

President Robert Mugabe cut cake; his allies drowned themselves in wine, song and dance to mark their leader's 87th birthday in style, as dozens of activists nursed injuries inflicted by State security agents loyal to the former guerilla leader.

In a week showing contrasting fortunes for Zimbabweans depending on which divide one belongs to-President Mugabe's Zanu PF hosted a lavish arena party on Saturday to cap a week of birthday celebrations. President Mugabe turned 87 last Monday, 21 February.

Loyalists heaped praise on the octogenarian leader, celebrating him as a legend who has continuously sacrificed his life to bring independence and democracy to Zimbabwe.

But those at the receiving end of his regime have a different take on President Mugabe's legacy.

As President Mugabe and his troops indulged in the plentiful at a luxurious conference centre in Harare, HIV activists arrested for allegedly plotting to oust him were being denied access to CD4 count to determine their conditon after a week in custody.

The HIV activists are part of 45 social justice and human rights campaigners, denied legal representation, tortured and forced to endure life-threatening conditions in prison for allegedly planning mass protests to unseat President Mugabe.

Of the arrested 45, six of them sustained serious injuries from what Munyaradzi Giwsai, the perceived leader of the group, said was indiscribable torture.

On Friday police arrested Job Sikhala, an opposition leader, on alleged kidnapping charges. He was still in police custody at the weekend.

Another opposition figure, Hon. Douglas Mwonzora, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP, and 23 villagers from Nyanga were languishing in remand prison in Mutare for allegedly assaulting ZANU PF supporters. Lawyers say the matter is one of numerous cases where police arrest victims of violence, letting the perpertrators to walk free.

In the most prominent case of the week, Gwisai, the coordinator-general of the International Socialist Organisation, narrated in court on Thursday how he was detained and tortured, summing up the experience as "sadistic and a tragedy for Zimbabwe".

In a case highlighting Zimbabwe's deteriorating human rights situation since independence in 1980, police swooped on Gwisai and the other detainees as they were watching videos of the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions on
19 February.

Police accused the group of plotting to use mass protests to unseat President Mugabe the same way people forced dictators in Egypt and Tunisia to step down.

The University of Zimbabwe labour law lecturer is battling to sit and walk because of torture sessions aimed at inducing confessions that would implicate the activists in the commission of treason, a charge which they are facing in court. Narrating his ordeal in court, Gwisai said he was tortured together with five other detainees, including former student leader Hopewell Gumbo, in a room in the basement at Harare Central Police Station by nine State security agents. The agents, according to Gwisai, included some police officers who had arrested the activists.

Gwisai said each of the six detainees received a series of lashes which were administered while they lay down on their stomachs. He added that he received between 15 and 20 lashes as the police and his tormentors sought to obtain confessions from him and the other detainees.

All 45 remain incarcerated in remand prison in Harare and at Chikurubi Women's Prison for the female detainees. They return to court today when Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba, who applied for the placement of the detainees on remand, cross examines Gwisai.

For many Zimbabweans outside President Mugabe's cabal, Gwisai and Hon. Mwonzora's cases did not come as a shock. Rather, they highlighted how citizens viewed as critical of the President and his party remained an endangered species.

"The police continue to selectively apply the law in favour of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party," said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa.

"These persistent abuses demonstrate the need for urgent reform of Zimbabwe's security sector to bring to an end a culture of impunity for human rights violations and partisan enforcement of the law."

Download full document

Visit the ZLHR fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP