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Shock secret DVD captures brutal torture of unionists
ZimOnline
October 11, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=260

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JOHANNESBURG - The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) has released a secretly filmed video on last month's brutal assault and torture of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders.

The ZCTU leaders and opposition activists were brutally assaulted by the police for trying to lead street demonstrations in Harare over worsening economic hardships in the country.

Unveiling the DVD to the media on Tuesday, FEDUSA president Mary Malete said she and most of her federation's leadership had been shocked at the extent of the abuse of the 15 ZCTU leaders as shown in the footage.

Malete said FEDUSA had thus decided to make copies of the DVD and distribute them to prove the extent of President Robert Mugabe's brutality.

She said she would also ask President Thabo Mbeki to view the DVD when she meets him later this week.

She hoped the DVD, which was smuggled out of Zimbabwe, would help prove the futility of the South African government's quiet diplomacy approach on Zimbabwe.

Malete said FEDUSA, one of South Africa's major labour federations with a membership of 350 000, would also petition the International Labour Organisation (ILO) over the beatings and ask it to exert pressure on the international community to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.

"As FEDUSA has said before, politics and political power is one thing, human rights violations is completely another," said Dennis George, the general secretary of FEDUSA.

The DVD is seen as crucial in efforts by Zimbabwean civic organisations in exile who are trying to document all cases of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

The civic groups say such evidence is crucial in pressing charges against human rights violators at the international criminal court should such an opportunity arise in future.

The DVD shows how the police initially heavily assaulted the ZCTU leaders as they bundled them into a police van after foiling their protest, clearly contradicting the government's claims that the protesters were injured while trying to jump off a moving police vehicle to avoid arrest.

The beatings and torture of the ZCTU leaders continued while they were in actual police custody although the DVD did not capture that part of their ordeal.

ZCTU general secretary explains in the DVD how he was brutally assaulted by a group of five police officers while in the police cell until he fainted.

ZCTU vice-president Lucia Matibenga describes how she was tortured while the police accused her of seeking to return white rule to Zimbabwe.

She says the police told her they will not bother opening a docket for her as they were not trained to write dockets but to sign death warrants.

Chibebe says he was accused of working in cahoots with Western governments as the police beat him until he passed out.

Other ZCTU leaders explain their ordeals in the DVD and show graphic injuries they suffered including huge scars on their bodies and buttocks.

"We did not want to overthrow the Zimbabwean government. We simply wanted better salaries for workers," one unnamed ZCTU leader said in the DVD.

Malete noted President Mbeki's remarks that Zimbabweans should resolve their own differences.

She wondered how that was possible when the key stakeholders for any possible settlement of the Zimbabwean crisis were bring brutalised in the way shown in the video.

"When we got hold of the video, we decided that we should share it with other South Africans so that they could see what our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters are going through," said the FEDUSA President. - ZimOnline

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