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Paranoid
state agents at it again
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
November 09, 2011
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) condemns the arbitrary and stubborn actions
of the police and some Department of Immigration officials, who
on two consecutive days harassed some officials of Oxfam GB (Oxfam).
Some members
of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Law and Order Section accompanied
by officials from the Department of Immigration on Wednesday 9 November
2011 detained 10 Oxfam GB officials, who were attending an internal
planning meeting in Zimbabwe.
The police and
the Department of Immigration officials broke up an Oxfam meeting
at Bronte Hotel and rounded up all the 10 foreign participants and
seized their passports before hauling them to the Department of
Immigration offices at the disreputable Linquenda House, where they
claimed to be verifying their passports and the status of their
participation at the internal meeting and whether they had legally
entered the country, a process which is usually done at the port
of entry.
The raid on
Wednesday 9 November 2011 followed the one executed on Tuesday 8
November 2011, where five ZRP officers descended on Bronte Hotel,
whose staff, police confirmed had been cooperating with them, where
they interrogated the local Oxfam leadership including Oxfam country
director Tsitsi Choruma and Ransom Mariga, the organisation's
Humanitarian Programmes Manager for more than four hours.
The police officers
accused the Oxfam leaders of holding an unlawful gathering at the
hotel which was not sanctioned by them.
However, a team
of lawyers from ZLHR explained to the police that Oxfam was not
obligated to notify the police because they were holding an internal
meeting which is exempted under the provisions of the obnoxious
Public Order and
Security Act (POSA), after which the police left the venue.
Undeterred,
the police who incorporated the Department of Immigration officials
on Wednesday afternoon returned to haunt the Oxfam officials again
by confiscating their passports and detaining them at Linquenda
House.
However, after
the intervention of lawyers from ZLHR and the conclusion of the
superficial process to verify their status, both the police and
the Department of Immigrations authorities released the 10 Oxfam
officials and handed back their travelling documents.
ZLHR is extremely
concerned at the unmistakable and extreme collusion between the
police from the ZRP Law and Order Section and the Department of
Immigration officials and their uncivilised conduct in harassing
bonafide visitors, whose organisation's interventions have
sustained livelihoods, health and the less privileged people of
Zimbabwe, which shows an unacceptable disregard for the rule of
law in our country.
The contemptuous
conduct of the police and the Department of Immigration officials
portrays a government that is suffering from persecutory delusional
disorder, which is typical of paranoid States.
Visit the ZLHR
fact
sheet
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