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Statement on the arrest and detention of members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and leaders of the Crisis Coalition of civil society organisations
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
November 21, 2003

On 18 November 2003 the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called for a nation wide protest against high levels of taxation, the ever increasing prices and cost of living and the violation of human and trade union rights. In Harare, several highly respected civic leaders from the Crisis Coalition of civil society organisations joined in the protest. Again, the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) was used to stifle the protest and wholesale arrests resulted throughout the country, with some protesters being assaulted by the police. People were arrested throughout Zimbabwe but were mostly released on payment of an admission of guilt fine.

However in Harare, the leadership of the ZCTU was arrested from a hotel where they were meeting and charged under Section 26 of POSA viz "Prohibition of public gatherings to avoid public disorder". Forty-eight (48) others, including the civic leaders and ZCTU members were charged under Section 19 of POSA for conduct "conducive to riot, disorder or intolerance".

Having been incarcerated in the Harare Central Police Station for forty-eight hours, all were brought before the Magistrates' Court on 20 November 2003 and remanded out of custody until 21 November 2003 when the state withdrew all the charges before plea for lack of evidence.

With the forty-eight accused, the police had first charged them under Section 19 of POSA, then under the Miscellaneous Offences Act for "disrupting traffic" then finally under Section 26(5) of POSA for failing to comply with a notice issued by a regulating authority to prohibit a public meeting. The Attorney General's Office, in the meantime, had said the charge under POSA was not sustainable as the ZCTU is exempted as a Trade Union under the Act.

Such harassment and unlawful arrest of ordinary citizens is totally unacceptable, not to mention the wasted time and resources of the courts, police and most particularly the accused in such circumstances. The State must desist from such wanton action.

The Human Rights Forum, together with civil society in Zimbabwe, is gravely concerned over this latest move by the State to stifle freedom of expression, association and movement in Zimbabwe, following, as it does, so closely on the arrests of members of the National Constitutional Assembly on 22 October 2003 who were demonstrating for a new democratic constitution.

Again, the Human Rights Forum calls on the State, as we have done so frequently but to no avail, to uphold the constitutional rights of its citizens; to permit peaceful dissent and to repeal repressive legislation which constrains the people's liberties.

We further call on the State to abide by the provisions of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, to which it is a signatory and the international community to support the efforts of civil society to restore democracy in Zimbabwe.

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