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Tsvangirai speaks on plight of detained photojournalist
MISA-Zimbabwe
February 10, 2009

http://www.misazim.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=449&Itemid=1

Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai on 10 February 2009 assured Zimbabweans of intense efforts underway to release by 11 February 2009 detained photojournalist Shadreck Manyere and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko detained together with other pro-Movement for Democratic Change activists.

Addressing a press conference in Harare to announce the MDC-T's ministerial line-up for the inclusive government, Tsvangirai said the plight of the political detainees was of utter importance to him. The issue of the political detainees is a very important issue to us. "It is being attended to and we are insisting that they be released before the event tomorrow," he said.

By mentioning the "event tomorrow", Tsvangirai was referring to his inauguration as Prime Minister on 11 February 2009. He said the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) established to monitor the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by MDC-T, MDC-M and Zanu PF on 15 September 2008 in the context of the inclusive government, was urgently seized with the matter.

Tsvangirai said he was committed to removing all restrictions to media freedom in Zimbabwe and that the issue of media reforms would be attended to immediately as envisaged under his democratic and stabilisation plan once the inclusive government is in place.

Manyere is being charged with six Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists on alleged acts of banditry, sabotage and terrorism while Mukoko, the director of Zimbabwe Peace Project and former news anchor with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is still to be formally charged on allegations believed to be widely linked to those faced by Manyere.

Mukoko was allegedly abducted from her home in Norton on 3 December 2008 and went missing until her appearance in court on 24 December 2008.

Manyere went missing after he had taken his vehicle to a garage in Norton about 40km west of Harare on 13 December 2008. He appeared in court on 24 December 2008. The detainees allege that they were tortured while in unlawful detention before they were eventually brought before the courts.

On 9 February 2009 the magistrates' court heard how prison officers had whisked freelance photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere from the Avenues Clinic in Harare on 6 February 2009 before he had been accorded full medical treatment. Defence lawyer Aleck Muchadehama described to Harare magistrate Gloria Takundwa how Manyere was forcibly taken away from the clinic by prisons officers without any explanation and without due regard to his medical condition. Muchadehama pleaded with the magistrate to ensure that the state complies with court orders and that a trial date be fixed by the next remand date on 16 February 2009.

Florence Ziyambi representing the state said investigations had been completed and that a docket had since been submitted to the Attorney-General's Office. Ziyambi said she would enquire with the prison officers as to why they had disrupted the accused's medical treatment. On the issue of the trial date, she said that would be done as soon as they perused the docket in question.

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