Harare - Zimbabwe police have carried out a string of
arrests of civic organisations since Sunday, widening a crackdown
against opponents of President Robert Mugabe's regime ahead of
presidential elections later this month.
The move follows a ban announced by the government last week on
field operations by aid agencies and charities, effectively
strangling supplies of food, medical care and an enormous range of
services desperately needed by millions of poverty- and violence-
wracked Zimbabweans.
Fourteen members of 'public information groups' organized by the
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, a non-governmental organization
pressing for media freedom, were finally given access to lawyers
Tuesday after being arrested on Sunday in the remote northern town of
Binga, MMPZ coordinator Andrew Moyse said.
Police had not stated why they had been arrested, but none had
been assaulted, he said.
In Harare, police on Monday raided the offices of the Ecumenical
Support Services, a Christian welfare organisation, and the Christian
Alliance, a body pressing for political reform.
'They claimed they were chasing criminals who had run into the
building,' said CA coordinator Useni Sibanda. 'Then they arrested 15
of our people.'
Among those arrested was outspoken critic and commentator, Pius
Wakatama.
'As of now they are still detained in Harare central police
station,' Sibanda said. 'There are no charges. This is a non-partisan
Christian organisation. I am shocked they are doing this to us. They
are clamping down on all civil society groups. It's impossible to
have free and fair elections.'
Also Tuesday, lawyers said police were ignoring high court orders
issued Sunday for the immediate release of senior advocate and just-
elected MP Eric Matinenga.
He was first arrested on May 31 on allegations of 'inciting
violence,' only days after he won a court ruling to stop members of
the army from assaulting people in his constituency in south-east
Zimbabwe, following a wave of violence against MDC supporters.
Last week a magistrate dismissed the charges against him and
ordered him released, only for police to arrest him at dawn at his
Harare home on Saturday.
A second round run-off presidential election is due on June 27
after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for
Democratic Change won more votes than 84-year-old Mugabe in elections
on March 29, but - according to results issued by the state electoral
commission after it sat on the vote count for five weeks without
explanation - failed to get more than 50 per cent of ballots that he
needed for outright victory.
Since the March 29 election, human rights and church groups have
confirmed MDC reports of a campaign of violent assaults against MDC
supporters and independent election observers around much of the
country. The MDC says that more than 65 have been killed while a
group of doctors says nearly 3,000 have had to be treated in hospital
for injuries.
Also Tuesday, Mugabe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said
he was planning an amnesty of convicted criminals in the country's
jails to make space for people convicted of political violence.
'We recognise that incidents of political violence are on the
increase and we want to take measures to stamp them out,' he said in
the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper. However, human rights
lawyers say that police routinely take no action against ruling party
perpetrators of violence.
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