Soldiers beat up Mbare residents

By Lance Guma
29 March 2007

Uniformed soldiers on Thursday descended on the high-density suburb of Mbare in Harare, indiscriminately beating up residents. They arrived in two army trucks and began assaulting people near Rufaro stadium at a place called Ngere. A member of the Combined Harare Residents Association and former student leader, Mfundo Milo, witnessed the assault and said it was completely unprovoked. He said more than 5 people were badly injured with most of them bleeding from the nose.

He says a truck full of soldiers stopped suddenly with 5 soldiers disembarking and they started beating up residents in the area accusing them of dividing Zanu PF ahead of the elections next year. Mlilo who was going home after a meeting of CHRA in the area says people were being rounded up and assaulted using the butt of the soldier’s rifles. He told Newsreel the CHRA meeting went on without incident and the beatings were unrelated to it.

Mlilo says residents told them at the meeting that the crackdown was affecting almost everyone and that an unofficial curfew had basically been imposed in the area.
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