NEWS > 18 September 2006

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The Guardian
18 September 2006

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Zimbabwe union chiefs tell of

More than a dozen Zimbabwean trade union leaders were tortured in police custody last week, according to harrowing testimony from their hospital beds and statements by their lawyers and doctors.
Human rights groups cited the accounts and gave warning of an increase in "rampant" violent abuse inflicted by government agents on critics of President Robert Mugabe's regime.

"Torture in Zimbabwe is both widespread and systematic, demanding both a national and an international response," the Human Rights Forum, a coalition of 17 Zimbabwean groups, said yesterday.

More than 100 leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were arrested on Wednesday as they were about to launch marches to protest at the country's deepening economic crisis.
Many of those detained are reported to have been so badly beaten by police that they suffered broken limbs and other serious injuries. Lawyers said their clients were refused medical care or access to their legal representatives for nearly 48 hours.

Despite this, union leaders vowed yesterday to continue their protests.

The ZCTU secretary-general, Wellington Chibebe, was beaten unconscious and suffered head injuries and fractures to his arm and fingers. Speaking from his Harare hospital bed, his head bandaged and his arm in a cast, Mr Chibebe described how the union leaders were taken in pairs to cells where police beat them with bars and batons.

He told the Standard newspaper that he passed out at about 4pm on Wednesday and regained consciousness only the next morning. He was not taken to hospital until Friday.

He said he was frightened by "the systematic way they were beating us and the language they used. They were saying, 'We were trained to kill and not to write dockets.'"

An extraordinary court session was conducted at his hospital bed on Saturday where he was granted free bail. The magistrate ordered an investigation into the assault.

About 30 labour activists also hobbled into court late on Friday after being beaten. Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU president, and Lucia Matibenga, the vice-president, suffered broken arms. All were released on bail.

Lawyers for the union organisers said that after their prolonged beatings they were initially denied medical attention and forced to wade barefoot through sewage in cells condemned as inhumane by the supreme court.

The Human Rights Forum reported that torture by state agents was increasing from the already high level recorded last year. The group documented 69 cases of torture in July and said incidence of such brutal mistreatment was "rampant", with "people in detention at significantly greater risk".

It demanded an immediate investigation into all allegations of torture and the prosecution of all those with substantial evidence against them.

The Mugabe government has refused to prosecute police and other agents accused of torture. In many instances those accused have been promoted.

The government is reported to be worried about the threat of a popular revolt. It has received a report from the secret police, the Central Intelligence Organisation, saying that unrest has been growing as a result of the economic crisis, according to military sources.

Inflation of 1,200% has left workers unable to feed their families properly.

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Article sourced from

The Guardian18 September 2006

Zimbabwe union chiefs tell of

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The Guardian
18 September 2006