People will be urged to sign a Love Petition to be sent to President Mugabe asking him to stop his police beating and abusing the WOZA women. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â BACKGROUND
Since February 2003 WOZA activists have repeatedly been arrested by the Zimbabwe police while taking part in peaceful protests. The treatment of WOZA illustrates the government’s increasing intolerance of peaceful public demonstrations expressing criticism of government policies. It also highlights the way in which repressive legislation is being used to effect arbitrary arrest and detention and facilitate a range of other human rights violations by the police. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The repeated pattern of arrest and detention (invariably in poor conditions) has not deterred WOZA from organizing peaceful protests. WOZA activists know and accept the risks attached to their activism. In the first three months of 2005 no less than 300 WOZA activists were arrested or detained by police on four separate occasions, a pattern that has been repeated in 2006.
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