Police say anti-torture campaign is offensive

Police in Bulawayo also said the signs could cause disharmony in the country.

The Human Rights Forum, which brings together pro-democracy and human rights groups in Zimbabwe, has been raising awareness of organised violence ahead of elections next year.

The group obtained permission from local authorities in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo, Mutare and Chitungwiza to erect billboards and street signs calling for the abolition of torture.

But police in Bulawayo have ordered them to take down nine billboards mounted across the city, which is known for being a hotbed of opposition to Robert Mugabes rule.

Chief Superintendent Patrick Moyo and CID officer Samakanda from Bulawayo contacted the Forum demanding that the Forum remove all of its billboards in Bulawayo, said the organisation in a statement.

The basis given for the removal of these billboards was that they were offensive. However, this claim was not substantiated, the group said.

Politically motivated violence, human rights abuses and torture mostly blamed on the police, other state agents and militant supporters of Mugabes Zanu (PF) party have accompanied every major election in Zimbabwe since the 1999 emergence of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC as a potent electoral threat to Mugabe and his party.

But human rights activists says torture, which is prohibited under Zimbabwes laws, has become entrenched and is no longer limited to political cases. They say it is widespread in the country and the police increasingly using torture to obtain information, even from common criminals.

The banning of the anti-torture billboards is the latest in a string of developments in recent weeks that have triggered concerns that hardline supporters of Mugabe are moving to clamp down on the media and whittle down the little democratic space that had opened during the nearly two years of coalition government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The government announced at the start of this month, for example, that no licences would be issued to new radio or television stations. Two freelance journalists were also arrested while covering a public debate on the countrys proposed constitution at the end of October, and the police have issued an arrest warrant for the editor of this newspaper, The Zimbabwean.

Police say they want to arrest Mbanga in connection with an article critical of Mugabe that the authorities allege was published by the paper after the 2008 elections. Mbanga contends he did not publish the story.

Meanwhile Zanu (PF) stalwarts in the coalition government are pushing for the enactment of a controversial new media gagging law that would criminalise the publication of judicial decisions and other official documents without ministerial approval.

Human rights groups say the General Laws Amendment Bill will impede the rights of citizens to freely access and distribute official information including new legislation, notices and other material published in the Government Gazette as well as court judgments and other public documents.