CIO operative led KweKwe torture

By Tichaona Sibanda
14 March 2007

A Central Intelligence Organisation operative identified only by his first name of Lizwe allegedly led the police torture against 12 MDC activists in a KweKwe police station on Wednesday.

Settlement Chikwinya, the organising secretary of the MDC Midlands province said they were beaten during interrogation until some of them passed out. They were kept in police cells for eight hours until they were released without charge at 8pm.

He said unlike what happened to the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and others in Harare, the security agents changed their tactics and beat them under the feet, buttocks and around the rib cages. The 12 activists were also forced to stand for hours at a time, deprived of any rest, bombarded with continuous questions about MDC activities and were also exposed to extremes of heat and forced to relieve themselves in their clothing.

Chikwinya said all this happened while their hands were handcuffed at the back. He added that their interrogators seemed to have mastered a new technique of not leaving them with visible bruises. He explained how one of the activists had his testicles squeezed until he cried out in pain.

‘The whole process was just cruel, they were kicking and humiliating all of us and imagine eight hours of non-stop torture without food and without rest and you just tell them anything. But that won’t stop our protests against the evil regime,’ Chikwinya said.

The local leadership of the MDC in KweKwe was rounded up just before the start of an anti-government protest in the town centre on Wednesday.
In Gweru, unconfirmed reports said the mayor Fedel Zvidzayi and Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya have also been released. The two MDC officials were part of a group that was arrested in the Midlands capital just before a protest march on Tuesday.