Zimbabwe: Hundreds Detained In Politically-Motivated Crackdown
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International *
12 March 2002 AFR 46/017/2002 44/02
The government of Zimbabwe should immediately and unconditionally release more than 1400 people, most of them polling
agents and civil society election observers, who were arrested nationwide, mostly on Monday 11 March, and detained in
police custody following last weekend's presidential election, Amnesty International said today.
The organization has received information of a pattern of mass arbitrary detention of hundreds of polling agents
belonging to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Those arrested also include election observers from
civil society organizations belonging to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) who were refused accreditation by
the government. A third group comprises individuals accused of trying to vote for a second time.
Several human rights sources in Zimbabwe have reported that police and security intelligence officers from the Central
Intelligence Organization (CIO) are targeting ZESN monitors for harassment and detention under orders from superiors.
"We are deeply concerned for the safety of those arrested in the light of the well-established pattern of
"disappearances", cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by Zimbabwean security forces," Amnesty International said.
A lawyer with the civil society organization Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who visited cells at the Harare Central
Police station described the congested conditions as hazardous to the detainees' health. Those arrested have been denied
food, and cannot lie down to sleep because of overcrowding.
In Manicaland Province, for example, police arrested 130 polling agents and observers. In Murambinda, also in
Manicaland Province, 27 observers from both the MDC and ZESN were detained and denied access to lawyers. Within the
hour, 50 people were arrested in Mutoko town in Mashonaland East Province, another in the Harare suburb of Mabvuku.
"The arrests of these Zimbabweans is politically-motivated; the government must either charge those in detention with a
recognizable criminal office based on solid evidence or release them immediately," Amnesty International said.
Background The election that began on 9 March 2002 has been characterized by intimidation of opposition supporters and
denial of accreditation to the vast majority of election monitors from civil society organizations. In the early morning
hours of 8 March, militias across the country set up illegal road-blocks to prevent the MDC from deploying its polling
agents, in what appeared to be an orchestrated campaign directed by the government. Amnesty International received
several reports of attacks, often resulting in serious injuries.
As voting got under way, pro-government militia members were reportedly trying to intimidate potential opposition
supporters from casting ballots. Two men in Karoyi, for example were beaten for over an hour by militia members because
they had allegedly been transported to the polling station at Tavoy Farm by a white person. Another man, an MDC polling
agent, in Karoyi was abducted by ZANU-PF youth during a lunch break and badly beaten all over his body and on the soles
of his feet.
Although the High Court ordered that all polling stations remain open in the country for a third day of voting on
Monday 11 March, the government opened only those in Harare and Chitungwiza, where voters were casting ballots for a
mayor and a city council as well as the president.
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