Journalist among arrested group as police crackdown on WOZA demo
By Alex Bell
18 June 2009

A journalist, in Harare for a press conference by rights organisation Amnesty International, was arrested along with a group of protesting members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), after police launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful demonstration on Thursday.

The WOZA members were marching through the capital as part of the group’s traditional commemoration of International Refugee Day on Friday. During similar protests in Bulawayo on Wednesday, eight WOZA members were arrested and scores of others beaten when police set upon the peaceful group with brutal force. The same situation was repeated, but with more brutality on Thursday, when hundreds of WOZA members and supporters took to the streets in Harare.

Six simultaneous protests had been organised to march to Parliament on Thursday afternoon, but police who had been patrolling the streets in the city centre used force to immediately stop three of the six marches. The WOZA members and supporters that had gathered were beaten with batons and then dispersed. Riot police then intercepted the fourth protest outside the offices of The Herald newspaper, violently beating the peaceful protestors. As the last two protests were nearing their target, Parliament, riot police again descended and began to brutally beat the group. Police followed the demonstrators as they dispersed, continuing to randomly beat and detain them as they moved away.

SW Radio Africa’s Harare correspondent, Simon Muchemwa explained on Thursday that eyewitnesses to the brutality included scores of media representatives who had gathered for the Amnesty International press conference. It’s understood that the journalist who was arrested was busy recording the vicious beating of a WOZA member, and by Thursday evening it was still unclear if the journalist had been released. WOZA officials by the evening were still trying to complete a headcount of their members involved in the demonstration. WOZA leader Jenni Williams confirmed that at least four members who were arrested were being transferred under police guard to hospital, because of the injuries sustained during the police beatings.

Meanwhile, only one WOZA member who was arrested in Bulawayo on Wednesday has been released, on medical grounds. The remaining seven are being held at Bulawayo Central Police station and the whole group is set to appear in court on Friday to face charges of disturbing the peace.