Dr Makumbe, civic leaders and Norwegian unionist arrested in Zimbabwe

DR JOHN MAKUMBE, a fierce government critic was yesterday arrested at his offices at the University of Zimbabwe in connection with the planned commemoration of the Operation Murambatsvina anniversary, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has said.
The lawyers’ organisation said Dr Makumbe, a political commentator on Zimbabwean issues, was arrested at his offices in the morning by two police officers, one Detective Assistant Inspector Shoko and Inspector Mukwaira.
Other civic leaders were also arrested on the same day, including church leaders and Alice Siame, from the Norwegian Federation of Trade Union’s Zambian Office. She was in Harare to attend the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) congress and was arrested yesterday evening.
“She was bundled from her hotel and sent to the departure lounge at the Harare Airport where she is currently being held now,” the ZLHR said. “They cannot deport her now because she does not have her passport which is with the Swiss Embassy in Harare where she was applying for a Visa to go to Switzerland and the embassy is still processing her visa and meanwhile she is still at the airport.” 
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have made an urgent chamber application to stop her deportation. The application will be heard today.

The civic leaders were arrested and were being questioned on events earmarked commemorate the first anniversary of Operation Murambatsvina the brutal exercise that saw the government of Zimbabwe last year destroying people’s houses and livelihoods, ostensibly to clean up the cities. It seems though that despite the UN condemning the exercise as illegal and disastrous, one the left over 2,4 million people in limbo, the government of Zimbabwe seems to be continuing in rounding up homeless people and dumping them outside the city. The homeless people are waiting to be deported to their rural homes.

Authorities in Harare then went on to ban public rallies, marches and prayer meetings planned for next weekend to mark the government's controversial exercise for fear the commemoration could easily turn into anti-government protests. Dr Makumbe said the government knows the people are hungry and angry and any situation could turn out nasty for them hence the intimidation and interrogation of civic leaders yesterday and the refusal to allow the ZCTU to have foreign delegates at its congress.
Makumbe said the Law and Order Officers who arrested him kept on asking him about the two-month commemoration of the exercise that many saw as a veiled punishment for the millions of urban voters who supported the MDC in the March 2005 parliamentary poll. The government, it has since turned out, was not cleaning up the cities in earnest but were trying to weaken the opposition in the event they decided to go onto the streets to dispute the poll results that saw Zanu PF gaining an upper hand in the 150-member House of Parliament. It nearly lost control of the House in 2000 to the newly-formed MDC.
Said Dr Makumbe after he was released:
“They asked me why are people at Crisis wanted to commemorate Murambatsvina?  And I said because it’s an event that happened in this country …and then they asked me why it should be commemorated, and are you commemorating the bad or the good about it? And I said I don’t know that there are any good things about it but that the bad is being commemorated because it happened and everyone knows it. And they didn’t like it at all.”
In Bulawayo church leaders were also being quizzed about the planned commemoration. The government is apparently unnerved by the planned commemoration, coming as it where at a time the ZCTU and the MDC are planning massive street campaigns this winter. It is not yet clear whether the street demonstrations will have enough support but opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has promised to lead the restive Zimbabweans from the front.
“This clearly shows that the regime is scared about the commemorations and afraid that some people may cause chaos. They know that the people are hungry and very unhappy, ” Dr Makumbe said.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Rapid Reaction Unit was busy trying to assist Dr Makumbe and those who have been rounded up for interrogations by the police and intelligence officers in Harare and Bulawayo. Dr Makumbe was released after three hours of interrogations at the Harare Central Police Station.
 
Meanwhile the lawyers’ organisation confirmed that the 15 students from Bindura University who were imprisoned last week were now out on bail. They had been arrested over demonstrations at campus that saw a science lab being torched. They were detained at the three prisons- Harare Central Prison, Bindura Prison and Chikurubi Maximum Prison in groups of five at the directive of the Deputy Commissioner of Prisons “who personally went to Bindura and directed that the students be separated as they may be of bad influence to inmates”.
Two of the students who were released, Beloved Chiweshe and Lesley Nyanyiwa, received medical attention after injuries were allegedly afflicted on them by the police. The two have since gone back to college yesterday to prepare for their exams. 
An undisclosed number of lecturers from the university are said to have been arrested for stealing computers during the rescue operation as fire fighters tried to fan out the fire blaze last week.