ZIMBABWE human rights organisations have expressed concern about the continuing military crackdown, which they maintain is mostly targeting people living in townships and activists.
Human rights lawyer David Coltart yesterday said the army’s door-to-door crackdown was on homes near areas that had roads barricaded and shops looted during the deadly protests that claimed 12 lives and left 78 with gunshot wounds when soldiers opened fire.
“The army and police crackdown is nationwide but mostly restricted to the high-density suburbs. People are being arbitrarily beaten up and accused of being looters. Civil society leaders are being arrested and denied bail,†said Coltart.
He called the denial of bail and abduction of activists a crime against humanity.
“This shift to targeted leaders of civil society is very worrying. Just today, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Peter Mutasa was arrested and is behind bars. Many others are in hiding and fear for their lives.â€
On Thursday, hundreds of vendors were rounded up and taken to Harare Central Police Station.
“Again they were beaten up and later released without charge.â€
Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Charity Charamba refused to comment on the allegations and cut off her cellphone when reported calls were made to her.
Matabeleland Collective, a network of civil society organisations and churches based in Bulawayo, has also registered concerns about the violent aftermath stemming from the 150% raising of fuel prices earlier this month.
“It was worrying to hear and verify reports that heavily armed police and soldiers went door to door indiscriminately assaulting citizens in the dead of night trying to peacefully sleep in their homes.â€
It noted such violations in Mabuthweni, Iminyela, Emganwini and Entumbane townships in Bulawayo.
“After kicking the doors open, groups of soldiers and police demanded all male children and adults to come out of their homes and lay down on their stomachs and get thoroughly beaten and threatened for ‘allegedly killing a police officer or sending their children to loot’,†it said.
It estimates that more than 1 000 residents were subjected to this treatment.
Coltart said it was worrying that human rights lawyers were being blocked from helping those being held at different police stations.
“There is a total subversion of the courts, especially the magistrates’ courts. We have received information that magistrates must deny all bail applications.â€
Since the return of President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday from a trip to Europe, the crackdown has remained in place in the townships.
John Sparks visits Bulawayo in Zimbabwe where businesses have been ripped apart and people beaten mercilessly.
Fresh reports have emerged of civilians being beaten by masked men which have led to fears that any promise of a new democracy is nothing but a false dawn
A week of protest, violence and national trauma in Zimbabwe began last week in the country’s second largest city, Bulawayo.
It was here on the morning of 14 January that protesters took to the streets after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration raised fuel prices by 150%.
Seized with fury, demonstrators blocked roads and occupied neighbourhoods – and their protests would lead to city-wide looting and rioting.
Shops and business in large swathes of the city were destroyed or stripped bare. I asked the owner of one supermarket in an area called Nkeita what had happened to the police.
“They came late, they were late. Everything was gone when they got here,†he replied.
Business owners told me that they were abandoned by the police and the army for the first three or four days.
Image:Former MP David Coltart thinks the authorities handed over Bulawayo to thugs
Government critics, like lawyer and former opposition MP David Coltart, think that the authorities decided to hand over this independent-minded community to thugs and criminal elements.
Oliver Mtukudzi, the musician fondly known as Tuku, has died at the age of 66.
Mtukudzi died Wednesday (Jan. 23) at Avenues Clinic in Harare. An international star with a fan base across the continent, Mtukudzi is mourned at home in Zimbabwe and around the region. After a career that spanned four decades and yielded hits like Todii, the guitarist and singer was Zimbabwe’s most successful musical export.
Despite global fame and the trouble in his country of birth, Mtukudzi remained in Zimbabwe. He avoided discussing politics, ignoring critics who urged him to speak up. Instead, he saw his role as an artist to give hope and comfort to his people. He did, however, focus on issues like HIV/Aids and domestic violence, earning him the role of Unicef Goodwill Ambassador.
“I’m very optimistic that Zimbabweans are hopeful things will get right,†he said last year during a radio interview and in the wake of the end of the Mugabe-era.
Mtukidzi at his music academy
Mtukudzi’s death comes exactly a year after South African music legend Hugh Masekela died. They’d first played together in 1983 when Masekela jumped on stage with Mtukudzi’s band in Harare, and continued to play festivals together. When Masekela fell ill in 2017, Mtukudzi stepped in at a planned festival and headlined a tribute concert last year.
Like Masekela, Mtukudzi regularly collaborated with young Zimbabwean musicians. Last year, he released Ndizarurirewith afropop singer Gary Tight. He also established the Pakare Paye Arts Centre in 2003 in Norton outside of Harare to nurture Zimbabwe’s next generation of musicians.
He remained a a regular at festivals while living with diabetes, Just a few weeks ago, Mtukudzi performed at the Nubian Festival in South Africa. And before that in October, he performed at the Kigali Jazz Junction. Last year, he re-released one of his greatest hits Neria, with a collaboration with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He was also planning to release his 67th studio album this year.
Tuku’s 66th album.
“My 67th album is meant to share a message of introspecting and I’m hoping people learn a thing or two from it,†Mtukudzi told South African media in December. “It’s an album I wrote last year after I realized that the world keeps getting tangled up in unnecessary problems.â€
Tributes are pouring in for the musician known for taking his fans to lunch.
“This is sad news, personally I am at a loss for words,†said musician Aleck Macheso.
“Rest in Peace Oliver. If anyone ever made me so proud to be Zimbabwean it was you,†said politician David Coltart. “Thank you for making us so happy especially during the darkest days.â€
As of January 18, more than 12 people had died, no less than 78 had suffered gunshot injuries, and at least 240 had been beaten and tortured by the Zimbabwean state. More than 466 had been arbitrarily arrested and detained, while hundreds are displaced or in safe houses in and outside the country.
Added to that is the shutdown of the internet and social media. All this points to a vicious authoritarian state showing its true face, this time in response to a stay-away protesting a massive petrol price rise.
The latest events are happening in the context of years of economic crisis, and the government’s months-long legitimacy crisis.
The last few days have wiped out any trust people might have had in the ability of the November 2017 coup that toppled former President Robert Mugabe to bring democratic and socio-economic rights to Zimbabwe’s long-suffering people.
Yet one wonders: is this a vicious repressive state or the accumulative effect of institutions that decayed under the doddering Mugabe; now disintegrated, dead and disinterred thanks to diminishing dollars?
Will Zimbabwe’s future be even worse than its terrible past? Can its neighbours bang some heads together to create a “transitional authority†of some sort, as Zimbabwean scholar and activist Professor Brian Raftopoulos suggests?
That’s needed, clearly. But it would not be advisable to raise one’s hopes.
Mugabe’s legacy
A veteran of many struggles against Mugabe once said that the old tyrant’s main problem was his inability to abide people smarter than him. So he surrounded himself with sycophants, and the odd idiot savant.
As another astute Zimbabwean observer put it to me, Mugabe was good at playing the country’s many opposing groups against one another. He would grant one the hope of ascendance, then pull it away in favour of another grasping gang. It created a precarious balance. Now one of the groups has the levers of state in hand, the awkward equilibrium is no more – and the winners are split in all directions too.
With Mugabe gone, the victors – Mnangagwa’s faction of the ruling Zanu-PF – have no idea how to police themselves, let alone an economy, their subjects and the opposition. Harvard professor and emeritus president of the World Peace Foundation, Robert Rotberg, has politely called their plans’ “barmyâ€.
My guess is that the men and women in charge are following some of the advice of their financial guru Professor Mthuli Ncube. He’s one of those mathematical geniuses whose ideology of short term pain producing fantastical gain needs either a lesson or two in politics or an iron fist. He has the latter.
It’s likely that those charged with implementing “austerity for prosperity†so zealously are fighting among themselves while their soldiers loot and kill on their own, as well as their officers’, will.
As the spoils’ scarcity worsens and power’s centre cannot hold – all in the shadows cast by the near dead – stories of post-coup coups and impeachments pop up. Police spokesperson Charity Charamba even believes the soldiers looting and torturing are people who have stolen their uniforms, so any “retired, deserted, and AWOL†soldiers must
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the gargantuan increase in fuel prices and then took his begging bowl to the oligarchic remnants of the Soviet ruins. His next stop was due to be Davos where he hoped to charm those with money by repeating his “open for business†mantra. But a 60,000 strong petition helped keep him away.
Mnangagwa has returned from his travels with power retained, although now more tainted than before. He’s likely to be at his crudest. Presidential spokesperson George Charamba promises that so far there has been only seen a “foretaste of things to comeâ€, and that Zanu-PF would “revisit†the sections of the constitution protecting rights of association and expression, “which we now know are prone to abuse by so-called proponents of democracyâ€.
As this week began, an eerie calm settled. But many civil society and political opposition activist members are still in hiding, lest the fate of teachers’ union president Obert Masaraure, abducted in the early hours of 18 January, tortured, and dumped at Harare’s Central Police Station, befall them.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum also chronicles the torture of Rashid Mahiya’s mother and his pastor. He is the chairperson of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Executive Director of Heal Zimbabwe Trust, and is accused of “masterminding†last week’s protests.
Movement for Democratic Change member and former Minister of Education Senator David Coltart has accused the military and those it has hired of crimes against humanity. In personal communication from Bulawayo he writes that last week’s debacle was a “deliberate campaign to punish the working class people†in his city.
A dream deferred
The nightmare of August 1 last year – when the military brutally clamped down on opposition supporters protesting against the announcement that Mnangagwa had won the presidential election, killing at least six – started to dash the post-Mugabe leader’s dream of legitimacy.
Economic revival might have done the trick: now there’s no chance of that. Last week’s events have exposed the fantasy in full finality. The only Zimbabweans still in the trance are its supposed leaders.
Their neighbours seem caught in it too. They had better wake up before the maelstrom mauls them in the morning.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Sunday that he will return home and skip the World Economic Forum in Switzerland after a week of turmoil in which activists have said at least a dozen people have been killed in a government crackdown.
Mnangagwa had been under growing pressure to come home from a two-week overseas visit as accounts emerged of abuses by security forces, including dozens of people wounded by gunfire and others hunted down in their homes and severely beaten.
Sunday’s decision was made after he had visited four countries on what was supposed to be a five-nation foreign trip. The Zanu PF leader visited Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Zimbabwe has seen days of unrest since Mnangagwa made an announcement more than doubling fuel prices that made the struggling country’s gasoline the most expensive in the world.
Mnangagwa in his Twitter post didn’t mention the violence, saying only that he is returning “in light of the economic situation.â€
The first priority, he said, “is to get Zimbabwe calm, stable and working again.â€
In light of the economic situation, I will be returning home after a highly productive week of bilateral trade and investment meetings. We will be ably represented in Davos by Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube. The first priority is to get Zimbabwe calm, stable and working again.3,4066:20 PM – Jan 20, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy4,505 people are talking about this
The decision to cancel the trip and return home came amid claims of deep divisions in the ruling Zanu PF party and some media reports of a second coup plot.
Although, the administration blames the opposition for the violence and looting seen country-wide during last week’s protests, Zanu PF supporters and security services personnel have also been arrested in connection with the outrages.
A cryptic Twitter message by former deputy finance minister and Mnangagwa loyalist Terrence Mukupe at the weekend left many eyebrows raised and prompted speculation that some in Zanu PF were likely plotting Mnangagwa’s ouster.
Mukupe remarked;
I’m worried with what’s going on… The citizens are blind to what’s really going on… The next 72hrs are going to be crucial regarding the path we are going to take as a nation… Chokwadi chichabuda… President Mnangagwa is not the issue… Viva Zimbabwe.â€
Meanwhile, former education minister and opposition MDC politician David Coltart claimed that a “third force†had been linked to the attacks in Bulawayo and other parts of the country.
“There is a mounting body of evidence which suggests that a third force was involved in the rampant looting which has taken place across Zimbabwe,†said Coltart in a weekend article.
“Companies who trade in Bulawayo’s suburbs have given evidence of a third force looting their properties on occasions with the police watching.
“They have told of local residents warning them that people unknown to their local communities have been brought in, and that they (the local residents) have not themselves been involved in the looting. â€
Meanwhile, at Davos in Switzerland, Mnangagwa had planned to appeal for foreign investment and loans to the southern African nation, but the visit had been expected to be a challenge.
His Davos visit a year ago came shortly after he took over from longtime, repressive leader Robert Mugabe, a move cheered by Zimbabweans and the international community.
A year of troubles in which his administration failed to improve the collapsed economy, narrowly won a disputed election and violently put down anti-government protests has caused widespread concern.
Growing frustration over rising inflation, a severe currency crisis and fuel lines that stretch for miles finally snapped after Mnangagwa announced the fuel price increase.
Civic leaders called for Zimbabweans to stay at home for three days in protest. Other people took to the streets. Some looted, in desperation or anger.
The military was called in, and with Mnangagwa overseas, the hard-line former military commander and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga was left in charge. A crackdown began.
More than 600 people have been arrested, among them a prominent pastor and activist, Evan Mawarire, who has supported peaceful protests on social media and now faces a possible 20 years in prison on a subversion charge.
Some 400 people have been denied bail, said his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa. She said she will apply for bail at the High Court Monday. She said described the case against Mawarire as a “travesty of justice.â€
Mawarire has called it “heartbreaking†to see the new government acting like that of former leader Mugabe, who stepped down under military pressure in late 2017 and was succeeded by former protege Mnangagwa.
In what critics have called an attempt to cover up abuses, the government in the past few days has imposed an internet shutdown across the country.
On Monday, the High Court will hear a case challenging the internet restrictions. Although access to the internet is back, social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are still blocked.
Jacob Mafume, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, said Mnangagwa’s return “was long overdue, in the first place he was not supposed to travel abroad when the country was burning from the economic and political crisis. … However, we don’t have confidence that his return will solve anything unless he opens lines of communication. What is needed is political dialogue but Mnangagwa has been avoiding us.â€
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference last week lamented the government’s “intolerant handling of dissent†and its failure to halt economic collapse, concluding that “our country is going through one of the most trying periods in its history.â€
SENIOR opposition politicians and former cabinet ministers have accused the government of using an “unprecedented and illegal†internet shutdown imposed last week to hide the administration crimes against humanity.
Former education minister and opposition MDC politician David Coltart described the blockade as a “modern-day equivalent of the Nazi book burnings†of the 1930s.
Not even Robert Mugabe ever turned off the internet during his rule,†said Coltart in an article published at the weekend.
Government imposed the internet ban last Tuesday as part of its lethal response to the nationwide protest called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
Although internet access has been restored, popular social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube remain banned.
Rights groups say the government crackdown against protestors has left 12 people dead, dozens injured from gunshots and hundreds in detention.
The ban was imposed because the “regime is fearful that the truth of what has actually happened in Zimbabwe since January 14 will be revealed,†said Coltart.
Commenting on Twitter, exiled former information minister Prof Jonathan Moyo said; “the military and Zanu PF militia used that Internet shutdown along with nightfall to unleash untold horror upon residents of high-density suburbs in all cities across Zimbabwe!
“While Bulawayo and Harare are the most affected, all cities and towns in the country are suffering the same assaults. He said he and his colleagues have been overwhelmed by desperate SoS messages of killings, torture, rape, injuries and abductions.â€
Coltart added; “ … appalling things which have happened.
Doctors report people shot with live ammunition. It is thought numerous people have been killed through the use of live ammunition.
“There are reports of men in uniform systematically breaking into houses of innocent people in working-class areas. There are other reports of tear gas being randomly thrown into houses.
“Hundreds of people have been detained. Lawyers attending to them in Harare on Wednesday reported to me that juveniles aged 14 are among those detained.
“They were being held with the adults — some had been held since 14 January, beyond the 48-hour limit for holding a person, as prescribed in the constitution.â€
According to Coltart, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was determined to avoid a repeat of what happened with the August 1 post-election protests.
“When innocents were gunned down by the military on the streets of Harare on the 1 August 2018, the regime learnt the lesson that the internet instantly reports the truth and provides damning evidence against the perpetrators.
“They simply cannot allow that to happen again and so they have cut off the internet, or at least the parts of it which can instantly convey images of abuse to the world,†he said.
The human rights lawyer called for international intervention saying, “The world must now act, and act urgently.
“Mnangagwa … must be taken to task … world leaders for the appalling human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against civilians by his regime.â€
Prof Moyo also urged the regional SADC organisation and the African Union (AU) to help save lives.
“While SADC and the AU see the situation in Zimbabwe as demos caused by Mnangagwa’s hike of fuel prices, the reality is that the price hike and demos are symptomatic of a constitutional crisis that has become humanitarian.
Supporting calls for Kirsty Coventry to resign, lawyer and former government minister David Coltart, said today that Coventry should resign as she risks being culpable of ongoing government violence against Zimbabweans.
Coltart was responding to a conversation started by another prominent lawyer, Fadzai Mahare, who said she respected Coventry’s decision to stay on but questioned how she’d be able to dissociate herself from the liability of the conduct of a Government she’s part of.
Some on Twitter have questioned why calls to resign have focused on Kirsty Coventry and not other ministers. Such calls, it has been said are based on her race and a messiah complex:
Rumour circulated last week that Coventry had resigned. However she said she would stay on and that she believed sports (which she’s a minister of) is part of the solution.
A few people, such as 2018 presidential election candidate, Noah Manyika, called on Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube to resign too.
The Zimbabwean security agents have gone on a campaign of retribution on Zimbabweans for protests on 14 January 2019. it has been reported that as many as 12 people have died from the violence on Zimbabweans, most of them men from high density surburbs in Harare.
Zimbabwe’s police and military blamed violence during last week’s protest on men masquerading as soldiers in stolen military uniforms.
Criminals dressed as soldiers and police “hired vehicles from car hire companies†before committing criminal acts, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told reporters late Saturday in the capital, Harare.
“The explanation is as pathetic as it is ridiculous,†David Coltart, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party’s legal secretary, said by telephone.
Thousands of Zimbabweans took to the streets last week, barricading roads and torching some government property to protest the state’s doubling of fuel prices. The violence killed at least 12 people and left scores with injuries.
In a separate interview with Zimbabwe’s state broadcaster, presidential spokesman George Charamba said blocking access to the internet last week “was necessary.â€
â€The internet was a tool that was used to coordinate violence. Naturally, when you’re reacting to a conspiracy of that nature, you ensure that society is protected. There’s no way that you expect us to sacrifice a national good for the sake of the internet,†he said.
BRITISH Africa Minister Harriett Baldwin on Thursday summoned Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Retired Colonel Christian Katsande, to discuss the Theresa May government’s concerns over reports of violence, killings of demonstrators, internet blackout and a security crackdown in the country this week.
BY EVERSON MUSHAVA
Harriet said Britain was deeply concerned by reports of violence and the security crackdown in the country.
This came as reports showed that an estimated 14 people had died and hundreds injured and arrested since Monday when the stay away organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions turned violent.
“Deeply concerned by reports of violence, fatalities, internet shutdown and security crack-down this week in Zimbabwe. I summoned ambassador to @foreignoffice to discuss concerns in person,†Baldwin tweeted Thursday evening.
Katsande was Deputy Chief Secretary before being reassigned by President Emmerson Mnangagwa after the November 2017 coup which ousted former President Robert Mugabe from power.
In a ministerial statement on Zimbabwe yesterday, Baldwin said: “Since the weekend there has been widespread unrest and a heavy security force response, with several people killed and many injured.
“While we condemn the violent behaviour of some protestors, and unlawful acts such as arson and looting, we are deeply concerned that Zimbabwe’s security forces have acted disproportionately in response. In particular, there are disturbing reports of use of live ammunition, intimidation and excessive force,†the statement read.
“We call on the government of Zimbabwe to ensure its security forces act professionally, proportionately and at all times with respect for human life and constitutional rights. We further call on the government of Zimbabwe to investigate all allegations of human rights abuses. We also urge the reinstatement of full internet access, consistent with citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of expression.â€
The European Union, in a statement from Brussels, yesterday said the escalation of violence in Zimbabwe over recent days had been aggravated by the disproportionate use of force by security personnel.
“We expect the government of Zimbabwe to uphold human rights and the rule of law, as enshrined in the Constitution, and ensure due legal process for those detained. Access to medical services should be granted to those in need. It is essential that demonstrations be carried out peacefully; the destruction of private or public property is unacceptable,†the EU said.
“Moreover, the shutdown of access to the Internet should also be reversed. Access to information is a universal right and should be respected by government in accordance with its constitutional and international obligations.â€
Zanu PF has accused the MDC of the violence, but ongoing court cases revealed the involvement of the Zimbabwe military and ruling party apparatchiks in the orgy of violence.
Zimbabwe authorities also deported eTV news reporters yesterday upon touching down at the Robert Mugabe International Airport, in what the media organisation claimed was an attempt to cover up for the heinous activities by the soldiers.
Media Alliance of Zimbabwe said in a statement: “Aldrin Smpear and Linge Ndabambi of eTV news were refused entry into Zimbabwe on flimsy grounds. “The deportation of the foreign journalists comes on the backdrop of the second directive by government to completely shutdown the Internet in response to widespread citizens’ demonstrations, violent protests and a heavy-handed State response that has plunged the country into a crisis.†In the US, American senators condemned the violence and implored the Zimbabwe authorities to desist from excessive use of force when dealing with civilian protests.
So barbaric were the attacks which are still ongoing in most parts of Harare’s high-density suburbs, that many will remain with the mental scars long after their flesh wounds have healed.
Most of the victims from Kuwadzana, Harare, including children as young as 12, suffered serious injuries after the military embarked on a door-to-door crackdown meant to quell the protests over fuel price increases and general hardships that many Zimbabweans are facing.
Seventeen year-old Stephen from Kuwadzana said he was traumatised by attacks from soldiers who he always looked up to as heroes. He is nursing head and back injuries.
Narrating his ordeal, the “O†Level student said Tuesday was a nightmare for his community, which was subjected to such torture many will require extensive medical care as well as counselling.
“All hell broke loose on Tuesday morning when the soldiers descended on our neighbourhood and started beating people. Many ran indoors to seek refuge, but they followed and either teargassed them out or kicked down doors,†he said painfully.
Like everyone, Stephen and his 12-year-old sister and their parents locked themselves up, but the soldiers came and demanded that they open the doors.
“My mother pleaded with them, saying they were just mere school children, but the soldiers did not listen and dragged us away. They took me and my sister, and we were ordered to roll in raw sewage before being beaten up with logs,†he said.
“It was very painful, but I tried to be brave and looked them in the face. That must have angered them more and they continued beating me.â€
Several men and boys spent nights in the fields because the soldiers targeted them more. Those who failed to get away in time were ordered to lie down before being trampled on by booted feet and steel rods.
Many were taken up a mountain, beaten and ordered to roll down.
“We stayed in the forests, afraid to go back home and were very concerned about our families we had left behind,†a young man, from Mbare, said.
Elizabeth can hardly walk. They beat her backside until it turned black from repeated strokes.
“I cannot even sit properly; I am in so much pain. I do not belong to any political party, but they beat me up anyhow. What crime have I committed?†she queried.
The 30-year-old was beaten up in front of her four-year old son.
“My son saved me when he cried as he watched the entire drama, and that is when they stopped. One of them actually said if he had not cried, they wanted to kill me,†she said.
Another 27-year-old woman from Hopley, Jennifer, was battered while she was sleeping in her house.
“They demanded to see my husband and when I told them that he was at work, they started assaulting me. There were dogs everywhere. I was scared. I did not think I would live to see another day,†she said.
Like the other female victims, her backside got the worst and she struggles to sit or walk. Thirty seven year-old Getrude was beaten with a red-hot rod plucked from a burning tyre.
“They dragged me from my house and took me to where the tyres were burning and asked who had set the fire. I told them I had no idea, but they beat me up and took a burning rod and used it on me,†she said. Afterwards, they asked her to smear soot on the gaping wound.
The children whose age range from 12 were still traumatised and afraid to go home. “If I hear a sound, I jump because I imagine that they have come back, this time to kill me and my family,†said a 12-year-old, who had head and back injuries.
Yesterday, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said they had noted the human rights violations with concern since the beginning of the protests.
In a statement, they said they had recorded over 844 human rights violations during the shutdown, with at least 12 deaths and 78 injuries from gunshots as well as 242 from dog bites, assaults and torture. Over 466 cases of arbitrary arrests and detentions were also recorded.
The forum said it condemned the random and indiscriminate use of live ammunition as well as lethal force.
“The forum has received disturbing reports of armed security breaking into private homes, torturing occupants, including children as young as nine years,â€
They also expressed concern over the Internet blockade by government, describing the act as unwarranted and unjustified.
