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ZCTU National Labour Protest - Sept 13, 2006 - Index of articles
Zim
says unionists injured themselves
Mail & Guardian (SA)
October 06, 2006
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=285975
The Zimbabwe government has denied
claims by the main labour union that more than a dozen of its members
were assaulted in police custody following foiled street
protests last month, it was reported Friday.
Members of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were injured while trying to
resist arrest by jumping off police vehicles, Deputy Home Affairs
Minister Reuben Marumahoko told Parliament on Thursday.
No one was assaulted in the police
cells and the police used minimum force, the state-controlled Herald
newspaper quoted the minister as saying during a debate.
On Tuesday a Harare magistrate dismissed
an internal police investigation that exonerated the alleged perpetrators
of the assaults and ordered a probe by detectives from the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) instead.
Magistrate William Bhila also postponed
the trial of 31 ZCTU protesters until October 17, as several of
the union members were still nursing injuries, including fractured
arms and fingers and bruises they allegedly received in police custody.
The ZCTU had called the September 13
protests to push for higher wages, greater access to anti-Aids drugs
and an end to Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis. The brutal behaviour
of the police has provoked widespread criticism both in Zimbabwe
and abroad.
Last week the United Nations country
team in Zimbabwe said it viewed with profound dismay the apparent
condoning of the police action by the authorities here.
Top government officials, including
President Robert Mugabe, have said they were satisfied with the
way the police behaved.
Mugabe told the Herald after the incident:
"Police were right in dealing sternly with Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions leaders during their demonstration ... because the
trade unionists want to become a law unto themselves".
"We cannot have a situation where people
decide to sit in places not allowed and when the police remove them,
they say no," Mugabe was quoted as saying.
"We can't have that, that is a revolt
to the system. When the police say move, move. If you don't move,
you invite the police to use force," Mugabe said. - Sapa-DPA
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