They arrested Terence Chimhavi the Youth Forum’s Advocacy Officer as well as Farirai Mageza, a member of the
Youth Forum in Harare. The two were arrested at around 1600hrs and were detained at Avondale Police Station where they were thoroughly interrogated for more than 8 hours. The two were accused of being the masterminds behind the spraying of graffiti messages denouncing gross misgovernance on walls around Avondale Shopping Center. The police based their allegation on the fact that they had seen posters of civic society leaders who were brutalized by their colleagues on March 11 2007 and other posters depicting gross human rights violation and the general meltdown of social service delivery in Zimbabwe at Youth Forum offices. The two were released after midnight without any charges leveled against them.
The two had gone to the Youth Forum’s offices to do some office work and were surprised to see ten plain clothes officers from Avondale Police
Station from the Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) unit. The police officers were in the company of one Mapfumo, a Harare property mogul
who owns the premises that house the Youth Forum offices. Apparently Mapfumo who had an axe on his person had led these officers to the offices on the pretext that he wanted to evict the Youth Forum from his property as he felt that he personally did not like the nature of work that the Youth Forum was undertaking. Mapfumo said he wanted to evict the Youth Forum and create space for the Ministry Of Policy Implementation In The Office Of The President. Mapfumo told the two in the presence of the police officers that the Ministry of Policy Implementation in the Office of the President had
raised serious concerns with him on the activities of the Youth Forum when they had visited the premises to view them as they wanted to acquire the
property as they gear up for the harmonized March 29 elections. Mapfumo further alleged that some of the posters that were in the offices were
subversive and denigrated the President whom he personally had no problems with. Mapfumo said he preferred to have more progressive people on the
premises rather than the Youth Forum who are into the ‘business of politics’. Mapfumo further gave a directive in front of the police officers that he
wanted the Youth Forum out of his premises before Monday the 4th of February, failure of which he promised to take decisive action which he said
was not going to be very pleasant for the Youth Forum. He also further threatened to take the case to higher offices. The behavior exhibited by the police is shocking but not surprising as they temporarily allowed Mapfumo to be above the law. The Youth Forum offices have for the past 5 months been under surveillance by people who are suspected to be from the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
These people who are in the habit of changing vehicles with tinted windows everyday, usually park their vehicles a few meters from the Youth Forum
offices, a clear tactic to intimidate the Youth Forum workers and members who frequent the offices.
This case is just but a tip of the iceberg. Cases of harassment of civic rights activists are clearly on the rise, mainly attributed to the impending
harmonized elections slated for March 29. The Youth Forum is fully aware of the tactics used to silence pro-democratic institutions by the police as
they seek to jealously guard Mugabe’s quest to remain Zimbabwe’s president.
The behavior exhibited by police clearly shows their partisan nature. It is quite surprising that the police could not lay any charges against the two
despite having detained and interrogated them for such a long period of time. What is also shocking is how the police could tolerate a man wielding
an axe, a weapon which is classified as a very dangerous weapon, to execute an eviction. Surely there are legal procedures in place for any evictions to
take place.
Such conduct from the Zimbabwe Republic Police deserves condemnation of the highest order and the Youth Forum urges police officers to desist from
executing unlawful and illegal arrests lest history will judge them accordingly. How then can we trust such an openly partisan police force to
facilitate the holding of free and fair elections? The police force must stop this clear abuse of office and gross violations of constitutional
provisions of freedom of association and conscience. The Youth Forum will not tire in its quest to advocate for an election that is free and fair come
March 29. The Youth Forum also urges all youths to shun acts of violence and intolerance to diverging views. The Youth Forum urges all the youths of
Zimbabwe to vote against this clear abuse of the police by the state. The youths should vote against arbitrary arrests and torture, state sanctioned
violence aimed at innocent civilians including women and children, repressive legislation(AIPPA, POSA, BSA etc),poor justice delivery system,
state sanctioned impoverishment of the masses by the gluttonous man and women in the ruling regime and unaffordable life. – Youth Forum Information and Publicity
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