ZIMBABWE: Police defy magistrate's order to investigate torture claims
HARARE, 6 October 2006 (IRIN) - Police are defying a magistrate's order to produce a detailed report on the alleged assault and torture while in custody of more than a dozen Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) members after a protest was foiled by the security forces.
On Tuesday magistrate William Bhila dismissed a police report written by the arresting officers, which said there was no substance to the torture allegations, and ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to take over the enquiry, as it was improper for the police "to investigate themselves".
The magistrate postponed until 17 October the trial of the unionists, who have been charged with "acting in a manner likely to cause public disorder", to give the authorities the necessary time to complete a comprehensive report on the incidents of alleged torture.
Among those arrested and allegedly beaten last month were ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena told IRIN that the police investigation had found no evidence of torture, and that "the unionists who had bruises, sustained them while resisting arrest during the demonstrations."
He said, "Those with injuries received them after jumping from moving police vehicles, after being arrested, and our officers only used minimum force to rearrest them."
Alec Muchadehama, the ZCTU's legal representative, dismissed the police claim that his clients had jumped from moving vehicles as "flimsy, and not serious".
A medical report by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said in a statement that the bruises sustained by the unionists were "consistent with being beaten with baton sticks".
"The ZADHR states that the medically confirmed and documented pattern of injuries sustained by the ZCTU members, who were arrested on 13 September 2006 and detained in police custody until 15 September 2006, is consistent with the testimony given by the ZCTU members themselves."
According to the association, some of the injuries sustained by the unionists indicated that they were beaten with blunt objects, resulting in seven of them suffering bone fractures, and that the unionists had received injuries to the backs of their heads, shoulders, arms, buttocks and thighs.
"Soft-tissue injuries to the soles of the feet are also consistent with beatings, and correspond to the torture method called 'falanga', which can leave a torture victim having difficulty with normal walking for the rest of his or her life," the ZADHR said.
President Robert Mugabe's perceived endorsement of police heavy-handedness after the arrest and detention of the unionists was expected to result in the case dying a natural death.
"Some people are now crying foul that they were assaulted," Mugabe said. "Yes, you get a beating - when the police say move, you should move. If you don't move, you invite the police to use force. We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed, and when the police remove them, they say 'no'."
The protest was designed to spark nationwide rolling mass action to force government and employers to address the increasing hardships of citizens. If there were no response to their grievances, they were to stage a two-day demonstration the following week and, if necessary, weeklong protests.
Police response to the initial protest appears to have derailed planned mass action designed to highlight the country's economic meltdown, which has resulted in annual inflation soaring to 1,200 percent - the world highest - and unemployment levels in excess of 70 percent.
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