Uproar over brutal police beatings of trade unionists

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By our Correspondent
HARARE – Brutal beatings by police, with suspected soldiers joining in, of trade unionists arrested for trying to hold a peaceful demonstration in Harare have provoked national and international condemnation.
Reports of brutal behaviour and systematic use of torture by Robert Mugabe’s police are tragically now routine.
But this time, with some trade unionists appearing in court in splints, others hardly able to walk, and their secretary general Wellington Chibebe struggling to speak from a hospital bed, the results of the barbaric behaviour by the regime’s agents were there for all to see.
Outpourings against such official cruelty focussed renewed attention on the Robert Mugabe regime’s disdain for international conventions and the impunity it grants state agents to behave lawlessly.
Members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were rounded up almost as soon as the Sept. 13 demonstration against the dire state of the economy and workers’ conditions began. Witnesses said police lashed out as they arrested the demonstrators. But the real brutality took place once they were herded into Harare’s notorious Matapi Police Station.
“We were told to get into cells in pairs … they started beating us up all over the body with batons and a knobkerrie. The assault carried on for about 20 minutes. I passed out because of excessive bleeding,” Chibebe told The Standard. He regained consciousness the next morning, having suffered severe head injuries, a broken arm and two broken fingers.
Chibebe said the language of some of the attackers made him suspect they were not all police officers. “They said things like, ‘We were trained to kill and not to write dockets’,” he added.
Magistrate Peter Mufunda held a court session at Chibebe’s bedside in the Parirenyatwa Hospital, granted him free bail, ordered an investigation into the assault and a full report to be delivered to court by Oct. 3. He also ordered that the perpetrators be brought to book.
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo, also badly beaten, and 29 others appeared in court on charges of breaching the peace. Half had clearly been assaulted. They were granted bail of $20 000 each and ordered to report weekly to police. Earlier, defence lawyers had had to get a High Court order to be allowed to see their clients and to force police to take the seriously injured to hospital for treatment.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Doctors for Human Rights, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum which groups 16 organisations, all protested.
The US and British governments, international labour organizations, Britain’s Trades Union Congress, the African Regional Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joined in.
“The state’s response confirms conclusively that this regime holds human rights and democracy in contempt,” said COSATU, which has long been at logger heads with Thabo Mbeki’s government for turning a blind eye to vote-rigging, suppression of free speech and other excesses by Robert Mugabe.
In London, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber accused the Zimbabwe authorities of “gross violations” of the International Labour Organisation’s conventions, signed by Harare, which oblige governments to observe workers’ rights. The TUC launched an appeal, calling for donations made out to “TUC Aid – Zimbabwe Appeal” to be sent to TUC Aid at its headquarters, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS.
“Torture in Zimbabwe is both widespread and systemic, demanding both a national and an international response,” the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said, demanding the prosecution of the perpetrators of the latest assaults.
National Constitution Assembly chairperson Lovemore Madhuku pledged to hold more demonstrations soon. “The acts of intimidation and primitive repression that were shown by the police … will not deter the people of Zimbabwe from fighting for a democratic constitution that will help them reclaim their freedom,” said Madhuku.
In Brussels, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the police assault on Reuters TV cameraman Mike Saburi, who was filming police beating people when the police turned on him, assaulting and arresting him.
“Banning media coverage and trampling on press freedom will not solve any of the problems of Zimbabwe,” Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office.