Lawyer: Bindura students tortured in police custody

By Violet Gonda
12 May 2006

Andrew Makoni, one of the lawyers representing the students from Bindura University, reports that all 15 students who were first arrested earlier this week were tortured in police custody. He said Zimbabwe National Students Association (ZINASU) Secretary General Beloved Chiweshe had visible injuries as a result of the assaults and went on to say; “In fact all the students who were arrested on Monday were all assaulted and tortured in various forms. ”

Makoni and his colleague Alec Muchadehama had missed a bail hearing for the students on Thursday as a result of threats by ZANU PF sponsored thugs. He said, “We received information that some party activists were gathered at the court house and had threatened that they were going to deal with the lawyers who were coming over to note the ruling in the afternoon. Having heard that, we then decided to delay our visit to Bindura and we only got to Bindura after 3pm and by then the youths had been dispersed and the ruling had been delivered.”

The lawyer said the students were also unfairly denied bail by a Bindura magistrate after being linked to the violence that took place at the University on Wednesday, although the riot took place while they were in police custody.

Other students, responding to police brutality and the denial of their right to demonstrate hikes in tuition fees and inadequate allowances, ran amok on Wednesday and torched a computer lab at the university. The computer lab is believed to be worth billions of dollars. This led to the arrest of 39 more students.

On the latest arrest, Makoni said it has not been easy to ascertain exactly how many students have been arrested or are in need of urgent treatment as the lawyers have not had access to their clients.

Analysts say it is clear that the students are being victimised by the state which has failed to run the state institutions properly. Inflation has been galloping so fast is pegged at more than 1 000 % and life has become basically unmanageable for the majority of the population. The rise in school fees has also affected school children in primary and secondary education. It is reported that half the population of children from government schools are now out of school because the rise in school fees is simply unaffordable.

The government has in turn dealt with the general discontent in the country by attacking and arresting members of the pressure groups, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and the student movements. At least 200 WOZA activists including 73 primary school children were arrested last week, 50 NCA activists were arrested on Thursday and at least 54 students from Bindura University are behind bars.

Also this week, the increasingly militant ZINASU reported that the entire newly elected Students Executive Council (SEC) at the University of Zimbabwe was suspended in a government clampdown.