The United States on Wednesday condemned a recent wave of arrests of leaders of Zimbabwe’s embattled civil society, as well as signs of burgeoning violence around the country.
Indications are growing that President Robert Mugabe’s police and intelligence agents are cracking down on outspoken civic groups and pro-democracy parliamentarians.
The crackdown comes ahead of the start of a critical operation by the power-sharing government to seek public opinion on the drafting of a new constitution.
A statement issued by the US embassy to Zimbabwe on Wednesday referred to the US’s concern over the arrest of NGO leaders, referring in particular to Farai Maguwu.
Maguwu, the director of an organisation that has helped expose widespread violence by police and soldiers in Zimbabwean diamond fields against illegal diggers, was arrested last week.
He was accused of publishing statements prejudicial to state security over the alleged killing and torture of hundreds of diggers in 2008.
Lawyers said that in the last three weeks, three MPs from the Movement for Democratic Change – which is in a coalition government with Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party — had been arrested on charges of insulting 86-year-old Mugabe.
The US also raised the case of the arrest and alleged torture two weeks ago of two employees of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, the country’s gay movement, after a pornographic DVD was allegedly found in the organisation’s office during a police raid.
The embassy said it was also concerned by reports from human rights groups of increased political violence around the country.
NGOs have been reporting that vigilantes loyal to Mugabe have been re-establishing camps around the country that were bases for Zanu-PF’s bloody election campaign in 2008.
As Zimbabwe prepares for its upcoming constitutional outreach campaign, civil society must be allowed to perform its role in providing an independent voice in support of the Zimbabwean people, the embassy said. — Sapa-dpa