September 2010 Vol 23, Human rights and abuse
MDC-T Manicaland Refutes Theresa Makone's Praise for Police
Members of the MDC-T say the police are still supporting ZANU PF militia terror campaigns during the constitutional outreach exercise, despite claims by Theresa Makone, the MDC-T's co-Minister of Home Affairs, that the police have turned over a new leaf.
Members of the MDC-T say the police are still supporting ZANU PF militia terror campaigns during the constitutional outreach exercise, despite claims by Theresa Makone, the MDC-T's co-Minister of Home Affairs, that the police have turned over a new leaf.
According to Pishayi Muchauraya, the MDC-T's Manicaland province spokesperson and Makoni South MP, the police still continue to support the militia in areas in Nyanga, where he says ZANU PF has set up terror bases.
He said, for example, that on Saturday there was a Constitution Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) meeting, at Bhumbira Primary school in Ward Nine Nyanga South. But it was aborted when violence perpetrated by war vets and ZANU PF militia broke out. Instead of the police arresting the perpetrators of the violence, they arrested the injured MDC members instead.
Yet in an article in the Zimbabwe Independent on Friday, Makone had vouched for the police saying they had turned over a new leaf and were no longer partisan.
When told that his fellow MDC-T member Makone was claiming that the police are now neutral Muchauraya emphasized that the police are still supporting ZANU PF.
"At Bhumira Primary School we had ten uniformed police officers who also had some guns. But what they did is they had to arrest those people who were injured and make sure they are not spotted by some COPAC observers. It was the entire MDC executive in the area which was injured, and arrested by the police. The other one who nearly had his eye removed was also arrested upon making a report," Muchauraya said.
"Police will be present at all COPAC meetings," he said. "The Zimbabwe Republic Police is acting like an extension of ZANU PF and they are actually assisting the militia."
Makone's praise for the police directly contradicts many observers and human rights groups who maintain the police still enforce the law in a partisan manner and fail to arrest and prosecute known ZANU PF perpetrators of politically-motivated violence.
