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A travesty of justice - victims of assault jailed and charged
Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA)
January 16, 2003

CHRA’s Chief Executive Office Farai Barnabas Mangodza (31), Information Officer Jameson Gadzirayi (23), Executive Committee Member Joseph Rose (38) and Kuwadzana resident, Richard Mudekwe (22) were arrested by police on Tuesday night in Kuwadzana.

The four CHRA workers went to Kuwadzana as a follow-up trip to a meeting on Tuesday morning with ZESN (Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network) where we discussed strategies for the forthcoming Kuwadzana by-election. They did not hold any meeting. After driving around they stopped at Kuwadzana 5 centre where they were surrounded by youth militiamen and abducted to a building nearby which belongs to council but has been commandeered by the militia. They were then beaten for approximately two hours with a variety of instruments including batons, sjamboks and bricks on their backs, buttocks, thighs and feet. Eventually they were ‘rescued’ by police only to be detained for the night.

When they were taken to Law and Order at Central, the officer at L&O said that there were no charges that could be laid against the four and they were taken back to Kuwadzana. They were eventually charged under the Miscellaneous Offences Act with ‘behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace’ and released after signing admissions of guilt and paying $5000 each. We decided that they needed to get medical attention; it was better to sign the admissions and get them out of police custody than let them spend another night in the barbaric and inhuman conditions in the cell (where the previous night some 30-odd prisoners shared a cell about 10 sq metres with no room to sit let alone lie down!).

We subsequently took them to Avenues Clinic to be examined by a doctor and to take photos of their injuries. Fortunately the four did not suffer any major injuries and they are now resting at home.

It is absolutely iniquitous that the police did not attempt to arrest the perpetrators of this violence, which can only confirm our suspicions that the beatings were carried out with the acquiescence of the police and the state. In addition to the personal injuries, over $10 000 was stolen and shared amongst the thugs while we have yet to recover 2 cell phones and shoes belonging to the 4. The fact that the police then proceeded to hold and attempt to charge the four without any attempt to provide medical care or to notify the families of the four is beyond the bounds of human behaviour. We shall be meeting with our lawyers to consider our responses to this attack and the police response.

This is part of the ongoing attempt by the regime to silence civic activists working for democracy in Harare and Zimbabwe. We have also learnt that Mayor Mudzuri has been threatened with re-arrest since his release on Monday.

Thank you to the many friends in Zimbabwe and elsewhere who have phoned to express solidarity and sympathy for the four. We would remind everyone that this is not an isolated occurrence and that such events are a daily reality for many Zimbabweans who are at the mercy of arbitrary violence perpetrated by para-military thugs paid for and sanctioned by the Mugabe regime and ignored by a morally corrupt and compliant police force that have betrayed the basic tenets of their so-called charter.

Enough is enough!
Zvakwana!

For more information:
Tel: +263-(0)91-249430
Email: chraadvo@ecoweb.co.zw, chra@ecoweb.co.zw

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