According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), in April 2008 police took magistrates and prosecutors in Mutare were taken on an orientation tour’ of the area.Thereafter, a special police task force, complemented by ferocious dogs, was assembled to deal with the Chiadzwa problem’.
The lawyers’ group states: This force besieged the Chiadzwa area arresting over 1,000 suspects, including women and children. In the process, it is alleged some individuals were bitten by the dogs and assaulted by police officers, while others sustained injuries from falling whilst attempting to flee from the unleashed dogs.
ZLHR maintains that the arrests were indiscriminate, with suspects complaining to lawyers that they had been arrested from the main road, their homes, the grazing fields, shopping centres and homesteads in and around the Chiadzwa area.Some of the accused persons have also alleged that their homes were forcefully opened and their money, foodstuff and groceries confiscated without lawful cause and without being recorded, ZLHR states.
Accused persons were taken to various police holding cells where they were kept in crowded and filthy conditions for as long as four to five days before initial court appearance. The holding cells’ toilets, bathing facilities and food provisions ranged from inadequate to non-existent. Among the detainees were juveniles as young as 12 and 13 years of age, and fairly elderly persons in their 60s.
When the individuals appeared in court, several had visible injuries and deep dog bites. No medical attention had been availed to them for rabies or tetanus. A number had to be assisted to enter or leave the court. It is estimated that at least 25 in every 100 prisoners were injured in one way or the other and it is alleged that the most severe injuries arose from abuse and dog bites, which occurred when the individuals were already in custody.
In contravention of the law, all those interviewed by the police never had warned and cautioned statements recorded from them before their initial court appearance and were not allowed access to lawyers. They eventually appeared in court well after the legal 48-hour time frame, ZLHR adds.
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