Minister joins war vets in condemning police brutality
By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube, the minister responsible for ex-combatants affairs, has joined the war veterans in condemning police heavy-handedness in suppressing popular protests.
Zimbabwean citizens recently took to the streets to protest worsening poverty, a bludgeoning economic crisis, corruption and poor governance, but the police descended heavily on them, beating up women and children and reportedly causing the death of one minor in Bulawayo.
Speaking in the populous suburb of Makokoba in Bulawayo where he donated textbooks on Sunday, Dube, a war veteran in his own right, described the police brutality as regrettable.
“It’s very sad and unfortunate that some police officers become overzealous. I don’t understand when some police officers start ill-treating kids to the extent of taking them to a police station or locking them up.
“Kids are kids and you will find that anywhere in the world they are taken by storm, and if that happens, they want to be seen participating.
“And if you ask why they are participating, they will not give you a satisfactory answer, but be that the case, the police officers must have enough sense to see that these are young people who need help, not baton sticks to be used on them or teargas. It’s just unfortunate,” said the minister.
A communique believed to have been authored by war veterans last week has no kind words for the police over the excessive force when it reacted to the recent citizen protests that turned violent.
“We…condemn the use of excessive force by the State against the citizens who were peacefully exercising their right to demonstrate against poor governance. We demand that those who exceeded the call of duty be held accountable in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe,” noted the communique.
Police earlier this year used water cannons and teargas on ex-combatants who had gathered for an unsanctioned meeting in the capital.
“We noted with regret that when some of us peacefully gathered around Harare, the leadership unashamedly and in humiliating fashion, tear-gassed and water-cannoned us for no reason.
“Regrettably, the general citizenry has previously been subjected to this inhuman and degrading treatment without a word of disapproval from us. That time has passed. We wish to categorically condemn the brutal oppression of the freedom of expression, whether as exercised by ourselves or by anyone else,” reads the communique.
While government authorities have dismissed the document as having been authored by external forces seeking regime change, it is widely believed to have been produced by the war veterans and a reflection of their anger with President Robert Mugabe’s leadership.
Human rights defenders and western embassies have also rapped the police for using crude force on demonstrating citizens. Nehanda Radio
