Three cricket fans have accused the Zimbabwe police of brutality at a match in Bulawayo. The members of the Queens club in Buluwayo were arrested after Zimbabwe’s game against Holland on February 28. They spent four nights in jail and were released on bail. They are expected to appear in court on March 21.
One of the men is the chairman of Queens Club, Paul Dietrechsen, along with George Parkin and Monty Jenkinson. Dietrechsen is 65 years old.
‘The ICC was aware that we were arrested and they did absolutely nothing while we rotted in jail for five days,†Parkin said.
Rodney Hartman, Communications Director of the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa says the ICC security director was aware of the incident.
‘We know that the chairman of the Queens club was arrested along with three other members for assaulting a policeman,†he said.
‘But the incident concerned the law and order of Zimbabwe and was not a political incident or a cricketing issue.â€
The incident is thought to have started when a young man tried to buy beer in the Queen’s Club members’ stand. The Queen’s security guard told the youth to leave and he started arguing.
‘Monty Jenkinson, one of the members, told him to leave,†said Parkin. ‘The youth eventually left the stand only to return with another guy and they accused Jenkinson of calling him an ”arse” in shona.â€
When the match had finished a group of policeman apprehended Jenkinson. ‘He went to the police post in the Queen’s grounds with them and I followed him inside,†Parkin said.
At that stage Paul Dietrechsen, wearing his ICC official accreditation badge, pushed through the police and asked to be informed about what was going on.
‘They started shouting that Dietrechsen was assaulting the police and hit him with fists. At that time a plainclothes policeman came in and pushed his way through — I saw him grab a long rubber riot baton from one of the uniform police details and started assaulting Dietrechsen with the baton,†Parkin said.
‘I started shouting for them to stop — and threw myself between the police and Dietrechsen to stop him from being assaulted, because I feared he would sustain serious injuries because of his age. The plainclothes policeman with the baton then started hitting me,†he said.
Parkin says the three of them were then pushed to the other side of the counter by the police, and forcibly pushed onto the ground into a sitting position.
They were then bundled into the police vehicle and taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station. The youth was also taken in the truck to Central Police Station and later to Queen’s Park police station where the three men were detained.
Parkin says he saw this youth head off in the direction of the toilets. ‘I didn’t see him again,†he said.
The three men spent four nights in the cells, before they were released on bail on Tuesday. ‘We were not allowed access to any legal advice, or to see our family members, or to make any phone calls,†Parkin said.
Patrick Ronan, the security director of the tournament said that before the games in Zimbabwe, the ICC met with Zimbabwean authorities. Zimbabwe told them that Zimbabwean law would be upheld in the matches, but agreed that they wouldn’t use excessive force in arrests.
‘The incident at the Queen’s club is related to a black spectator wanting to buy liquor in the member’s only section and than being turned away in a rude manner,†he said.
‘Dietrechsen pushed though the policemen. If you push policemen in any country you are looking for trouble, ‘he said.
‘The police perceived Dietrechsen’s actions as assault and he was arrested,†Ronan said. ‘I’m not aware of what happened to the three men after that.â€
Ronan said it was the wrong perception that the ICC was doing nothing about the incident. ‘Ben van Deventer, the SAPS major event director, flew down to Zimbabwe to clarify the situation. He was informed that the incident had been dealt with.â€
‘We also have to put the incident in balance. There was not many incidents in the games in Zimbabwe. Even political protesters arrested, paid their admission-of-guilt fines and was released without trouble,†he said.