Zimbabwe student leaders arrested

By Violet Gonda
8 September 2006

Armed riot police descended on a workshop organized by the Zimbabwe National Students Union and arrested 8 student leaders in Harare today. The student leaders were having a strategic workshop ahead of mass protests scheduled by the ZCTU and ZINASU for Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

It is reported that the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Rapid Reaction Unit lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe was denied access to his clients all day. The ZLHR said the police threatened the lawyer saying they were going to throw him out of the police station and warned that further unspecified action would follow.

The human rights body said upon the attendance of a further lawyer from their Public Interest Litigation Unit, Mr. Lawrence Chibwe, and insistence by the two lawyers that their clients' rights were being violated, a police officer from the Police District Intelligence Office told the lawyers: "We have been violating your clients' rights since this morning, and we will continue doing so. We are also violating your rights to see your clients."

The lawyers are currently preparing an urgent application to obtain access to the detained students and secure their release.

The students were working on a petition demanding accessible education for all in Zimbabwe. The arrested include the ZINASU Vice President Gideon Chitanga, Secretary General Beloved Chiweshe, President of the Bulawayo Polytechnic Milward Makwenjere, George Makoni, Fungai Mageza, Lawrence Mashungu, Clayton Njova and Terrence Chimhavi.

There has been a tense atmosphere and tightened security ever since the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) announced it is organising countrywide protests which have been backed by most progressive democratic forces in the country.

The arrests come on the heels of massive threats by the Mugabe regime who have warned of fierce reprisals to crush any protests. The students are being charged with planning to carry out an unlawful protest.

Undeterred, the students’ union said in a statement the demonstrations are going ahead next week. The statement reads: “We would like to reiterate our commitment to embark on peaceful and lawful protests as planned. We remain resolute, steadfast and undeterred and our actions on the said date are going on as planned and unabated.”

The group added; “We wish to inform ZANU PF that this is the same Union with the propensity to fight at a relentless capacity and that our students are in fact motivated by and geared for the arrests as a way to prove to the world that the regime has lost the last iota of adherence to the rule of law.”

In a strongly worded statement ZINASU President Promise Mkwananzi said; “We would like to warn Government to start to be responsive to the sensibilities of the people before they are swept away by the Democratic storm. Our protests are not a secret and will not hide.”

Irene Petras, acting Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, criticised the police behaviour saying it was un-procedural and lawless. She also stressed that detainees have a constitutional right to access their lawyers and be represented at all times.

We were not able to get a comment from the police.