Students arrested while govt denies abuses to African Commission
By Tererai Karimakwenda
23 November 2006

A total of 54 students were arrested in Harare, Bulawayo and other centres as they marched peacefully but making a noise, by beating drums and pots and singing on Wednesday. They were participating in the first of several planned “noisy” protests organized by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. The state security minister Didymus Mutasa immediately warned against any future actions, even though the government submitted a report this week denying human rights abuses to The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights meeting in The Gambia.

As he has done on several other occasions Minister Mutasa warned there would be a tough government response to any future protests. Reports quote him saying: "If they fail to restrain themselves we will make them do so and if we do so, they shouldn't cry." Police were caught unawares Wednesday when protestors around the country hooted from their cars and blew whistles. Many at home made noise, beating their pots and pans for at least 5 minutes as they joined in the protest.

President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union Promise Mkwananzi said 16 students were arrested in Bulawayo, 5 in Harare and 33 at Kaguvi Centre between Kwekwe and Gweru. He said police had been making it difficult for them to gain access to the arrested students but lawyers were now involved.

Mutasa’s response is a sign that the noise irked those in power as intended by the organizers of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign- a coalition of churches, students, civic and political groups which was formed to do just that - save Zimbabwe from further deterioration. They distributed fliers urging Zimbabweans to join in the noise making on a weekly basis. Some of them read: "Our noise is a symbol of our distress at the way Zimbabwe has been governed and a cry of hope for transformation."

But the arrests Wednesday and several other brutal actions against peaceful protestors by the police this year seem to have no effect on The African Commission. It failed again to put Zimbabwe on its agenda for the next session in 2007 despite the well-documented humanitarian crisis that has gripped the country for the last 6 years.

This continued impunity enjoyed by the Mugabe regime makes a mockery of the processes put in place by the organ of the African Union empowered with monitoring human rights. It also calls into question whether the continent’s leaders have any political will to reign in errant member states and create the democratic environment they claim needs to exist, as they pursue increased investment by the international community. But above all, it guarantees that brutal assaults and the torture of innocent Zimbabweans continue.