Police brutality claims another life

By Tichaona Sibanda
21 March 2007

One more person has died from torture by police in Harare amid an alarming surge in the death toll of MDC activists, resulting directly from state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

30 year-old Itai Manyeruke, a member of the MDC, was abducted and severely beaten up by the police on 11 March during the disturbances that claimed the life of Gift Tandare, another MDC activist. At least 35 MDC activists are still detained in hospital, 10 of them with gunshot wounds.

Manyeruke, who was abducted in Highfields during the Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer rally died the following day from injuries sustained during the beatings. A report released by the crisis coalition in Harare said after police realized they had murdered Manyeruke they stashed his body at Harare Hospital mortuary.

‘No notification was given to relatives and friends and the body was only discovered on the 20th of March after Manyeruke’s relatives hunted for it. A post-mortem report revealed that the deceased suffered a painful death, sustaining many fractures on his spinal cord. He will be buried in Buhera today (Wednesday),’ said the statement.

So far in the last 10 days the MDC has confirmed details of two deaths and of hundreds more receiving serious injuries since the state sponsored orgy of violence broke out last week.