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Police pounce on demonstrators
MISA-Zimbabwe
September 27, 2006

Ten members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were injured, five of them critically, on 25 September 2006 when police disrupted a planned demonstration to press for a new democratic constitution.

Five of the injured had to be rushed to Parirenyatwa Hospital for treatment following the assaults in Harare by armed riot police. The injured were part of an estimated 500 NCA members who had gathered in the capital's central business district for the planned peaceful demonstration.

The assaults came a few days after President Robert Mugabe defended the brutal police attacks against leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) despite international condemnation and increasing demands for full investigations into the assaults which led to the hospitalisation of secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe.

President Mugabe said the ZCTU leaders got the treatment they deserved.

"We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when the police remove them, they say no. We can't have that, that is a revolt to the system. If you do not move you invite the police to use force," said President Mugabe.

Armed riot police on 13 September 2006 sealed off Harare's CBD and arrested ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo, vice president Lucia Matibenga, Chibhebhe, senior opposition MDC official, Grace Kwinje and Raymond Majongwe, the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), among others.

Mike Saburi a freelance cameraperson was arrested together with leaders of the ZCTU ahead of the planned nationwide demonstrations leading to the assault of some of the trade unionists in the cells of a condemned police station.

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