Ten HIV-infected demonstrators and a tuberculosis sufferer were refused food and medicine while in police cells, human rights groups said on Thursday in a report that accuses Zimbabwe of failing to meet minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners.
The detainees were among 50 trade unionists and civic leaders arrested in Harare on November 8 for participating in a banned demonstration against soaring prices and food shortages, the Human Rights Forum said in its year-end report. Also detained were a mother and her six-month-old baby.
All were denied food or medicine during three days in custody, which exceeded the 48-hour maximum allowed under Zimbabwe law before detainees must be brought to court or released, the report said.
The forum, an alliance of rights groups, said the case highlighted appalling conditions in police holding cells. It said police were in ”clear violation of rights to freedom of expression, association and movement” and also accused them of violating the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of
prisoners.
Police did not immediately respond to the report.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has sought to crack down on its critics in recent years and protests are routinely banned. The forum recorded 522 reported cases of assault, 135 of torture, 651 of unlawful arrest and 621 of unlawful detention between January and November 2005.
The demonstrators arrested on November 8 were charged under public order and security laws but released without appearing in court.
Doctors who examined the prisoners on their release reported ”a plethora of ailments, including headaches, bloodstained and watery diarrhea, dysentery, itchy skin, facial rash, sore throat, coughing and stomach pains”, the report said.
Six women and four men belonging to a support group known as People Living With HIV/Aids were taking life-prolonging anti-retroviral medicines at the time of their arrest, it said.
Interruption of treatment can build resistance to the medicines.
The forum urged authorities to improve detention conditions or shut down uninhabitable cells. – Sapa-AP