Back to Index

Violence perpetrated by police on civilians in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
March 25, 2003

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) expresses its concerns at the conduct of the uniformed forces of indiscriminately harassing and beating up innocent citizens of Zimbabwe.

In a retribution exercise aimed at people who are alleged to have taken part or organised the recent job stayaway, the police are indiscriminately arresting, harassing and torturing law abiding citizens in an effort to appease the government and the ruling ZANU PF party.

It is very unprofessional for the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the National army to criminalise everyone especially when the people of Zimbabwe engaged in a peaceful collective action. This was only an attempt by the people to show discontent at how the government is handling the crisis in the country at the moment.

The ZCTU would like to remind the ZRP and the Army that they have a duty to up hold peace and tranquillity in this country and they cannot do this by resorting to violence and unfair imprisonment of law abiding citizens.

The Police need to be professional and serve the interest of each and every citizen of this Country.

The ZCTU appeals to the Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, and the Commander of the Defence forces, Vitalis Zvinavashe to reign in their men. It is only a matter of time before people of this country take the law into their own hands and the leaders of the security forces will have to take the blame if the security situation deteriorates.

Wellington Chibebe
ZCTU Secretary General

Visit the ZCTU 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