Human Rights lawyer Tsunga briefly detained at airport

By Violet Gonda
25 January 2007

Prominent human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga said he was briefly detained by state agents at Harare International Airport Thursday. This was after they saw his name on a government ‘hit list.’Tsunga, who is the Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and acting secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, had just arrived in Zimbabwe with six other lawyers and had been cleared by customs when he was surrounded by the four men dressed in suits.

Tsunga told SW Radio Africa: “Yes, it is true that I was briefly detained by central intelligence operatives working together with customs excise people.”

The human rights lawyer said he was confronted as he left the arrivals terminal. He said they demanded to see his passport and when he asked for their identities they refused and literally dragged him through a corridor into an office at the airport. There they demanded to also see his two bags.

Tsunga said this was not a routine customs process because of the way he was confronted. He said one of the men is a well know CIO who is involved in the vetting of people as they enter and exit the country.

The human rights lawyer joins a list of other prominent Zimbabweans activists who have had their passports scrutinised or seized. Last year Newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube had his passport seized, as did Raymond Majongwe the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and opposition official Paul Themba Nyathi.

Tsunga confirmed seeing a list, when one of the state agents grabbed his passport. “He had two A4 pages which had a list of individuals. So he compared the name on my passport and one of the names that was on the list. And when it matched that is when he said step inside.”

He believes the persecution of human rights activists in Zimbabwe is a systematic exercise, which is carried out very deliberately. Tsunga said it would be foolish not to expect most human rights defenders to be on that government “hit list.”

We were not able to get a comment from the State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa or airport officials.