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Arrest
and detention in Zimbabwe - Diary of the events from February 23
- April 12, 2002
Hans Christen
Saturday 23rd February,
2002
My wife Jenny had gone off
to a ladies’ lunch on a friend’s farm, hosted for Simmy Knott, a
dear friend of ours, who, together with her husband Mike, were shortly
leaving Zimbabwe in search of greener pastures in New Zealand. I
was preparing a chicken curry and rice dish for the evening meal,
as Jenny’s parents were coming to spend the weekend with us; we
were planning to celebrate her father’s birthday on the Sunday.
I had the curry bubbling away in the
slow cooker and was busy receiving and replying to emails, while
my two daughters, Klara (7) and Heidi (5) were entertaining themselves.
At about 2.30pm a vehicle arrived at the gate and I opened it. In
came 3 MDC activists, one of whom I knew – Bornface Tagwirei. I
had, some months ago, secured employment for him at Frame Africa,
owned by a friend of mine, Christopher Bell.
I offered them a cool drink and they
told me that they would like to borrow my Mazda B2200 pick-up. I
told them that I had lent my vehicle out and that I was unable to
help. They then informed me that they had already borrowed one vehicle
from elsewhere and they needed fuel in order to continue campaigning
in the constituency. Their vehicle had been left parked outside
the gate with another four or five occupants whom I invited in for
some refreshment. I told them that they could fill their vehicle
with fuel, on my account at Stephens’s (ex-Charlesdale) Service
Station in Marondera. To this they readily agreed and also requested
some firewood for the people guarding the remains of the local MDC
Parliamentary candidate’s house which had been partially gutted
by a firebomb a couple of days earlier. The house – as a result
of the firebombing – no longer had its electricity supply intact,
and so cooking had to be done on a wood fire. I gave them a load
of firewood and they went on their way.
At approximately 4pm my parents-in-law
arrived. I went about preparing afternoon tea, which we had on the
verandah. Jenny’s mother produced a beautiful chocolate birthday
cake, which my eldest daughter decorated with candles. My father-in-law
had barely blown out the candles on the cake when I heard the sounds
of another vehicle at the gate. Thinking that it was my wife returning
from her lunch party, I opened it only to see a Landrover Defender
followed by a light blue sedan car pull in through the gates.
I was immediately concerned for this
could mean the arrival of the ruling party’s Border Gezi Youth Brigade,
"war-veterans" or a motley crew of thugs. I herded my
in-laws and my children upstairs, and began shutting windows and
doors. However the visitors, numbering approximately fifteen, led
by what turned out to be Detective Inspector Chikwanda, were already
in the room adjacent to the kitchen which we use as a "pub".
I asked them who they were and enquired
as to the purpose of their visit. They all identified themselves
as plain-clothes officers attached to the Zimbabwe Republic Police
in Marondera. Several kept me entrapped in a little corner of the
room whilst others sifted through boxes and pored over maps that
we had gathered in order to help identify polling stations. The
officers also examined the jerry cans stored in my garage (a necessity
in these days of erratic fuel supplies) and muttered knowingly.
Some of them may or may not have wandered around the house whilst
I was cornered in the pub.
They took away my cell phone and only
reluctantly allowed me to retrieve a box of cigarettes before shoving
me into the back of the Landrover. At no stage were they able to
produce a Warrant of Arrest or a Search Warrant. I was not told
of the crime I was supposed to have committed until we arrived at
the police station in Marondera, where I learned that a Zanu (PF)
Nissan Hardbody Twin Cab pick- up had been damaged in an arson attack
the night before, whilst parked in the Marondera police station
car park. Interestingly, Marondera lawyer Ignatius Sakala told me
later, that at first, members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police sympathetic
to the MDC had been suspected of the crime, and 9 officers had been
transferred to remote posts. The Police accused me of attending
a meeting of MDC activists on Thursday 21st February
2002 at the partially burnt-out home of Didymus Munhenzva where
it is alleged that I helped plot the attack on the Zanu (PF) vehicle
with MDC activists.
Despite my protestations that I had a
complete and credible alibi covering the entire day, I was hauled
into the CID section of the police station, where to my surprise
I found all the MDC activists who had earlier in the afternoon visited
my home. I was questioned relentlessly, personal and family and
business details were extracted from me after which I was led into
the open central courtyard of the CID building where I was made
to sit on the concrete floor. I was asked whether I spoke Shona;
upon replying in the negative, I was accused of being a racist by
one of the group of approximately a dozen officers - a female -
who surrounded me.
I was questioned about my aluminium business
and told that it was illegal, as I didn’t have a licence to trade
in aluminium – which is nonsense. They asked about my photographic
business and asked whether I had done photography for the MDC. I
was reminded about the Macheke farmer, David Stevens, who was gunned
down in cold blood and at point-blank range outside a police station
before the 2000 Parliamentary Elections and I was told that I was
about to face the same fate. The officers were all in the kind of
state which suggested the prior consumption of narcotic and/or alcoholic
substances.
I was told to lie on my back and told
that if I did not answer the questions posed to me satisfactorily,
I would be whipped. Two sjamboks (long stout whips) were displayed
to prove that this was no idle threat. I admitted that although
I had supported the MDC, I had done so in terms of the constitution
which guarantees certain personal freedoms, including the freedom
to support the political party of my choice. I insisted that I had
done nothing illegal and that I had had no hand in either the alleged
"meeting" or the actual burning of the Zanu (PF) vehicle. I pointed
out that it was not illegal to be in possession of MDC literature.
I was then beaten on the soles of my
feet and on the ankles whist an officer stood on my knees. Burning
cigarettes were applied to my soles. I was also whipped across the
back and later received an open-handed blow to the face by a crazed
officer. (Upon my release from custody on Friday 8th
March, I went straight to Dr George Turner who witnessed and recorded
the now healing injuries that I had sustained.)
I was asked to provide the names and
other details of all other MDC supporters with whom I had been in
contact; questions that I managed generally to avoid or evade through
obfuscation. During these proceedings I heard frenzied screaming
from one of the adjacent offices which indicated that another suspect
was receiving a far more thorough beating than the one to which
I was being subjected. I was made to reveal my cell phone’s PIN
number and one of the officers carefully scrutinised the phone’s
directory. He then disappeared with it, presumably to note names
and numbers therein.
The group of nine suspects (Bornface
Tagwirei, Damiano Muchetuse, Elias Saunyama, Pound Pororai, Dickson
Kumbojo, Cosmos Paradzai, Christopher Jekanyika, Edith Terechiri
and I) were kept in one of the CID offices until 4.30am on Sunday
24th February whilst some of the suspects were in turn
taken away, one at a time, for further beatings (apparently near
the Marondera aerodrome) in order to elicit forced confessions from
them. My fellow suspects told me that the officers had, during the
interrogation at the aerodrome, fired shots into the air as a scare
tactic. Mercifully, although I was told that "Hans, we are
coming for you next" repeatedly, I suffered no further torture
– unlike some of my unfortunate fellows. I was however reminded
that as Whites, we had spurned the hand of reconciliation offered
to us by the Government of President Robert Mugabe, and that by
supporting the opposition MDC, I was in contravention of the Constitution
which I was told required obedience to the government of the day.
It was almost dawn when we were herded
into the overcrowded, filthy police cells, charged with Malicious
Injury to Property, after having to remove our shoes and surrender
our valuables. Most of my fellow suspects had been beaten so severely
on the soles of their feet that they could barely walk. This was
a blatant attempt by the police, obviously at the behest of higher
authorities, to silence leading opposition campaigners though detention,
and to shut down the MDC in Marondera ahead of the Presidential
Election. It later transpired that Jenny had come to the police
station to enquire after my whereabouts some time during our interrogation,
but was advised to return the following day after 8am.
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