Police threaten to shoot lawyers for arrested activists

By Tererai Karimakwenda
25 May, 2011

Police in Tsholotsho have continued to deny lawyers access to two officials from the ZimRights civic group, who were arrested in this area of Matabeleland North on Monday. Regional coordinator Florence Ndlovu, and paralegal officer Walter Dube, have not been seen since they were taken by police at a roadblock set up ‘to specifically arrest’ them. They had been banned from holding an anti torture workshop at Tshino Business centre, even though they had a court order giving them permission.

ZimRights director, Okay Machisa, told SW Radio Africa that he was “very, very worried” for their safety, after a police guard with an AK 47 rifle told lawyers on Wednesday he had been “instructed to shoot” if they continued trying to pass through the gate. Colleagues from ZimRights who had brought some food were also denied entry into Nyamandlovu police station, where they say Ndhlovu and Dube are being held, although police deny this.

“The car they were driving is no longer parked in a conspicuous place where everyone can see it,” Machisa said. He added that the vehicle driven by the arrested officials was now parked behind the police station. “How can they have the car and not have the people that own it?” a frustrated Machisa asked.

Ndhlovu and Dube were in Tsholotsho to teach villagers about the evils of torture and its effects, in an area where thousands of them suffered during the Gukurahundi massacres of the mid-eighties. But police banned the workshop, saying “the subject of torture is not in line with Zimbabwean culture”.

The arrests were similar to an incident in Lupane last month, when police arrested MDC-N MP Moses Mzila Ndhlovu, who is also a co-Minister for National Healing, and Father Max Mkandla, a priest who had given a church service on the massacres.