Over 200 MDC activists released without charge after weekend raid

By Lance Guma
28 May 2007

There was high drama at the MDC Harvest House offices on Saturday, when truckloads of riot police besieged the premises and arrested at least 211 youth members. According to party spokesman Nelson Chamisa, the youths were in the middle of a meeting when police cordoned off the building around noon and started beating up everyone in sight. Those arrested were bundled into 3 waiting trucks before being taken to different police stations in Harare. Chamisa told Newsreel the youths were merely discussing issues related to AIDS and democracy on the African continent and he launched a scathing attack on what he called the highhanded approach by police. He says the police vandalised and confiscated several pieces of equipment, literature and documents.

About 100 youths were released Saturday evening, 45 on Sunday afternoon and the remaining 66 set free at midnight. No charges were placed on those arrested, despite police claims they were pursuing investigations into a series of petrol bomb attacks on government targets. The youths were denied access to their lawyers or any food throughout their ordeal. One female detainee was made to drink 10 litres of water as part of the interrogation. Chamisa says it is particularly worrying to note that all those arrested were made to go through different state security departments who collected personal information about the detainees. They were asked for their names, addresses, next of kin, villages and totems in what opposition officials say is the compilation of a database meant to identify new targets for future harassment and intimidation.

Chamisa says they are convinced the regime is trying to deflate their morale ahead of elections in 2008 but that this would not work. He said Mugabe was behaving like a bull in a china shop and this was made worse by the fact he was facing an internal rebellion within Zanu PF over his leadership. Asked if it was worth staying in talks brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, in light of the continued harassment they were facing, Chamisa said the MDC did not want to dampen the efforts of the region in trying to help solve the crisis. ‘It’s a domestic problem which requires a domestic solution but we still need to anchor our efforts around the regional initiative by SADC so as to build pressure,’ he added.