Police arrested 78 women over the weekend when they tried to hold a protest to mark World Refugee Day and draw attention to the plight of Zimbabweans who they say are living like refugees, their lawyer said on Monday.
The women, some of them bystanders, were arrested in the second city of Bulawayo on Saturday where activists from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) were attempting to stage a demonstration, said their lawyer Lucas Nkomo.
”It appears there was an indiscriminate arrest of women and there was a huge number who were not participating in the demonstration,” he said.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena could not confirm the number of arrests but said the women would soon appear in court ”for holding an illegal gathering”.
The Woza group, which lobbies for the rights of women and also holds regular street protests against President Robert Mugabe’s government, had said it was staging Saturday’s demonstration because ”life for many Zimbabweans is the life of refugees”.
Nkomo said some of the women were released late on Saturday, but 43 were still in custody on Monday and were being questioned by police.
Zimbabwe, which has been led by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980, has been beset for years by a massive economic and political crisis, blamed partly on his controversial policy of land redistribution that has helped transform what was once Africa’s breadbasket into a land of recurring food shortages.
Meanwhile, in other news in Zimbabwe, fuel stations have started selling air to motorists at exorbitant prices, the state news agency reported on Sunday.
Ziana interviewed a motorist who had been asked to pay Z$2 000 (37 US cents) per tyre. Other stations are charging up to Z$2 500, it added.
Police are investigating the claims, the agency said.
Zimbabwe’s long-standing fuel crisis has eased in recent months after the government allowed fuel companies to set their own prices, but supplies have remained erratic. – Sapa-AFP