ZimRights Statement – A government ban on planned peaceful opposition demonstrations for electoral reforms in Zimbabwe and police provocation sparked violent riots in Harare on Friday.
Eighteen opposition parties under the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) had planned to march peacefully in the streets of the capital Harare with the intention of submitting a petition to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), demanding wide ranging electoral reforms ahead of the 2018 elections.
As citizens were waiting for an urgent High Court application filed by the parties, heavily armed riot police came and violently dispersed them from the open space where the march was intended to start near the Rotten Row Magistrates Court.
Teargas canisters were also fired into the court building’s foyer with police invading the building to physically assault civilians who were conducting their business in the court indiscriminately.
The police brutality sparked a wave of riots that spread across the Central Business District with the police resorting to more heavy-handed tactics against the thousands of unarmed civilians, who fought back in vain to escape the tear gas canisters and water cannons.
Water cannons spraying peppered water and teargas canisters were indiscriminately deployed at civilians, including women with children, some who fainted.
For about seven hours, Harare resembled a war zone as even more policemen were deployed, while citizens who had been going on about their usual business virtually found no escape routes in tear-smoke filled streets.
Police also arrested the Tajamuka/Sesjikile spokesperson, Promise Mkwananzi and activist, Sten Zvorwadza, who were peacefully abiding by their orders to report to the Harare Central police station on charges of causing instability.
ZimRights position
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) expresses its deepest shock and unreserved condemnation of the indiscriminate police brutality against citizens and lawlessness by the security forces in Harare this afternoon.
The forthcoming Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Summit of the 36th Ordinary Heads of State and Government Summit in Swaziland on August 30-31, 2016 should discuss the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe.
The government of Zimbabwe is directly responsible for the wanton brutality and gross human rights abuses that was perpetrated by the security forces against innocent and unarmed citizens in Harare.
The situation in Zimbabwe presents a threat of instability not in the country alone, but in the entire region.
There is need to urgently address the concerns of the citizens of Zimbabwe regarding bad governance, economic collapse, worsening poverty, corruption and human rights abuses.
The arrests of the Tajamuka/Sesjikile’s spokesperson, Promise Mkwananzi and activist, Sten Zvorwadza is unwarranted and they must be urgently released from police custody.
