Parents of missing girls demand medical report

By Mthulisi Mathuthu

Two of the three Chimanimani girls who went missing in May have been found, but the parents are refusing to accept them from the police demanding a report from a doctor about any abuses.

Grace Chirenje from the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network for Peace Building said she spoke to Hazel and Tatenda Marirwana’s father who said the police brought the girls to their home but the family rejected them, wanting a medical report first.

Chirenje said the parents were incensed by the fact that while they were told that a medical examination had been conducted they were not shown a report.

She said Mr. Marirwana said the police were with officials from the department of social welfare and an organization called Childline. The two girls are said to be staying at a police station. It was not clear where the other girl is but it is known that her parents live in Harare.

Hazel and Tatenda, together with their cousin Tilda Mutisi, disappeared on 25th May and SW Radio Africa has been reporting on the issue for the past three weeks.

It is also not clear where they were staying since they went missing and how the police found them.

The three girls were initially abducted by Amon Jirisera from the Machongwe Business Center where he runs a tuck-shop. A search party traced the girls to Jirisera’s house the following day, where it was alleged that one of the girls had been sexually abused.

The parents reported the case and left the girls in police custody and made a request for a medical exam at Mutambara Hospital. But the police phoned on the following day to say they had released the girls because they could not feed them. When they did not reach home the police refused to investigate the disappearance, threatening to arrest the parents themselves. SW Radio Africa