Vice president of Chinhoyi University and 100 NCA members arrested

By Tererai Karimakwenda
19 May 2006

The government has continued to hound anyone suspected of organising activities to commemorate last year’s disastrous Operation Murambatsvina. After several arrests and threats to civic and church leaders earlier in the week, the latest is a report from Chinhoyi that six students were picked up on Friday for allegedly attempting to stage a demonstration. Diana Tasiyana, the Vice President of Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) was among those arrested. She managed to contact outgoing student leader Collen Chibango soon after she was picked up by the police Friday morning.

Chibango told us Tasiyana sounded fragile and said she was being questioned about any involvement she might have had with the unrest and violence that took place at Bindura University last week. Chibango said the Chinhoyi vice president had nothing to do with any of it and is actually about 3 months pregnant. He has not been able to contact her since but he managed to alert The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who said they would dispatch a lawyer to Chinhoyi immediately. (We will update you as we get more information about her arrest.) A warrant of arrest has been issued for the entire student leadership which took over positions in ZINASU at the congress last week. Many who attended that event are reported to be hiding as state agents continue to hunt them down.

There are also reports that on Thursday police blocked a march and arrested about 100 members of the pressure group National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The group has been demanding a new constitution for Zimbabwe. The Reuters news agency said the arrests included several old women and their correspondent witnessed police with batons force the marchers to sit down before they reached the city centre. They were then loaded onto trucks. We were unable to reach NCA officials for more details on the arrests.

The government has this week acted in a manner that betrays a deep seated fear of the people as the police and state agents conducted a slew of unwarranted arrests and intimidated anyone suspected of being involved in the organising of commemorations of Operation Murambatsvina. Thursday marked the 1st anniversary of this exercise which displaced nearly one million people and destroyed their livelihood. The government is believed to be afraid that commemorative events could turn into widespread unrest as inflation passed the 1000% mark this month and prices of basic commodities more than doubled and continue to rise almost daily. A careful study of those who were arrested or intimidated this week shows that they are all people believed by government to be influential members of their communities most likely to be involved in mobilising or organising any mass action. And nobody has been spared.

Earlier in the week political commentator Dr John Makumbe was arrested and interrogated about his suspected role, and church leaders in Bulawayo were interrogated and ordered to cancel a peaceful procession scheduled for Saturday. Students from Bindura University who were released this week accused the police of forcing them to perform simulated sex acts. Some international delegates to the ZCTU congress in Harare were deported on Wednesday and more on Friday. Observers have criticised the actions as a sign that authorities are panicking. They also say this shows how far the Mugabe regime will go to deny the people their rights and to hold on to power.