Beaten WOZA members released on bail

By Alex Bell
19 June 2009

Four members of the pressure group,, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), who were brutally beaten and arrested in Harare on Thursday, were finally released on bail after being locked up overnight.

The four were denied medical treatment despite the serious injuries received at the hands of police officials, who launched a vicious attack on protesting WOZA members in the capital. The group had gathered to commemorate International Refugee Day by holding peaceful marches through the city streets to Parliament. But police who had been patrolling the streets in the city centre used force to immediately stop three of the six simultaneous marches that had been organised.

The WOZA members and supporters that had gathered were brutally beaten with batons and then dispersed. Riot police then intercepted the fourth protest outside the offices of The Herald newspaper, again violently beating the peaceful protestors. As the last two protests were nearing their target, parliament, riot police again descended and began to viciously beat the group. Police followed the demonstrators as they dispersed, continuing to randomly beat and detain them as they moved away.

Eyewitnesses to the brutality included scores of media representatives who had gathered for a press conference by human rights organisation Amnesty International. Three journalists, who were documenting the police assault on the WOZA members, were manhandled into police vans and detained. They were only released later in the evening when it was discovered that one of the journalists was from the state run Herald newspaper.

One of the journalists that were arrested described witnessing the police beatings, saying police continued to beat and kick the women that had been picked up and thrown into the police van.

“One officer in particular, seemed to be enjoying himself, calling out ‘piece of shit’ with each strike,” the journalist said.

The seriously injured WOZA members that were arrested were kept overnight in police cells without medical treatment, before appearing in the Harare Magistrates Court on Friday morning. After an initial argument by the state that the women should be denied bail, they were finally released on US$10 bail each and remanded out of custody to the 2nd of July. Their lawyer was also granted a court order for the police to explain the serious injuries the four women had received.

At the same time, seven other WOZA members who were arrested in Bulawayo on Wednesday also appeared in court on Friday morning, on charges of disturbing the peace. The group was arrested after WOZA’s Refugee Day commemoration march in the city was violently broken up by police. Three people were seriously injured, while scores more WOZA members sustained minor injuries, again at the hands of police. Eight people were arrested, although one was later released on medical grounds. The remaining seven have been kept in custody at the Bulawayo Central Police Station since Wednesday.

During Friday’s court appearance, the state spent the morning trying to convince the court that the group should be denied bail until the arrest of WOZA leader Jenni Williams had been secured. The state argued that Williams should be charged as an organiser because of remarks that she made at a public meeting last week that WOZA would roll out peaceful protests until all Zimbabweans receive social justice. Williams told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the state’s argument is “nothing more than another form of harassment,” saying there has been no move to arrest her despite her very public appearances at both marches this week. The seven WOZA members meanwhile were all finally released on bail late Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, outgoing US Ambassador James McGee on Thursday condemned the attacks on WOZA, saying: “We don’t like the way this country is being run.” McGee was speaking during a roundtable discussion with journalists in Harare on Thursday evening. He told journalists there he does not understand how ZANU PF affiliates, who themselves protested as political activists before independence, can now justify attacking people in the same protest situation today.

“Today, they say, when you open your moth, I’m going to hit you in the head,” McGee said. “Something is wrong with that.”