Rights groups and union leaders have united to condemn Zimbabwe’s government and police for allegedly beating and torturing demonstrators arrested during nationwide marches against the country’s fast-deteriorating social and economic conditions, The UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reports Monday.
At least 500 people were arrested last week according to Zimbabwe’s largest labour federation, which organised the protests. An IRIN correspondent in the capital, Harare, witnessed armed police severely beating demonstrators with batons prior to the marches, which were declared illegal and quickly suppressed by President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Amnesty International said it was “gravely concerned” by reports that several members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were beaten in police stations in Harare after being arrested.
“Hundreds of members of the ZCTU and women’s organisation, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), are also reported to be detained in Harare and other urban centres in Zimbabwe,” Amnesty said in a statement. “Members are being held without access to lawyers, adequate food and medical care … There are serious concerns for the health and safety of all those held.”
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF), a coalition of 16 rights groups, said the president, vice-president and secretary general of the ZCTU were all violently arrested at the protests and subjected to “serious torture”. All three sustained severe injuries while in police custody.
“Torture in Zimbabwe is both widespread and systemic, demanding both a national and an international response,” the ZHRF said in a statement. “The Human Rights Forum demands the release of all the detained members of the ZCTU, the immediate investigation of all allegations of torture and the prosecution of all those guilty of torture.”
Zimbabwe’s economy is in freefall, with hyperinflation above 1,200 percent annually and unemployment estimated at up to 80 percent, although the country’s Central Statistic Office maintains the actual unemployment rate is 11 percent. Staple foods are scarce, electricity supply interruptions frequent, and about 83 percent of the population live on less than US$2 a day, according to UNAIDS. Mugabe has blamed the country’s deepening problems on domestic and international opponents opposed to his fast-track land reform programme, which saw white-owned farms seized for settlement by landless blacks.
Opposition protests and mass-action campaigns against the government have often stalled at the starting blocks. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only leader since it won independence from Britain in 1980, warned critics last month that the army was ready to “pull the trigger” on those seeking to topple him.
On 13 September, marchers voiced demands for a living wage for workers, access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV-positive people, and an end to police harassment of “informal economy workers”. The protests were declared illegal and snuffed out by thousands of armed police.
The two-million member strong Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a consistent critic of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party government, called for international pressure to ensure the release of all trade unionists detained during the marches.
“In particular, we are deeply concerned at the news that one of those arrested, Wellington Chibebe, the ZCTU secretary-general, has been admitted to hospital with a fractured arm and bruises on his head,” COSATU said in a statement. “We demand the immediate release of all those arrested, the dropping of all charges, and disciplinary action against police officers found to have been responsible for the beating and torture of detainees.”
The South African government, sticking to its widely criticised stance of “quiet diplomacy” towards its northern neighbour, has refused to condemn the Mugabe government for the way it has handled the protests.
“We are monitoring developments with interest, but we always maintain that Zimbabwe needs to address its own problems and nobody can solve those problems for them, and it would be arrogant for us to pretend we could,” foreign affairs spokesperson Vincent Hlongwane told IRIN. “We are communicating with them and are in constant contact, but not with the aim of dictating to them … Zimbabwe can deal with its own problems more effectively.”
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), hobbled by internal squabbling and a split in October last year, condemned the Mugabe government and said protests would never be stopped by force and intimidation.
“We are appalled by the fact that terrorism and violence are being used by the state against its own people,” said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction. “We applaud the actions of the people of Zimbabwe for sending a message to the government. The regime is panicked and cannot maintain its position … Last week’s actions are only a sign of what is to come.”
