National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku was severely beaten when police violently dispersed an NCA demonstration nearly 10 years ago but he refused to be taken to hospital because he was afraid the authorities would come after him again.
Police arrested 118 demonstrators calling for a new constitution and beat up about 50.
Madhuku was beaten severely by police before being dumped, bleeding and semi-conscious, on a roadside on the edge of Harare.
His injuries included bruises all over his body, a deep cut on his head, and chest pains.
Madhuku said that the police beating him had said that they would have to “eliminate” him at some stage, but then backed off and were helping him to staunch his bleeding before they dumped him out of their truck.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 04HARARE220, NCA MARCH VIOLENTLY SUPPRESSED; LEADER BEATEN
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
051159Z Feb 04
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000220
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR SDELISI, LAROIAN, MRAYNOR
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER, DTEITELBAUM
LONDON FOR CGURNEY
PARIS FOR CNEARY
NAIROBI FOR TPFLAUMER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2009
SUBJECT: NCA MARCH VIOLENTLY SUPPRESSED; LEADER BEATEN
REF: 03 HARARE 2100
Classified By: Political Officer Win Dayton under Section 1.5(b)(d)
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Police on February 4 quickly and violently
dispersed an early afternoon demonstration organized by the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in support of a new
constitution. According to a local human rights lawyer,
police arrested 118 protesters and beat up about 50. At
least one was reported to be unconscious and still in the
hospital on February 5. Embassy has e-mailed to the
Department a list furnished by the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Lawyers Association of 34 individuals beaten and injured by
police. An NCA representative claimed that the demonstration
drew participants from Bulawayo and Mutare and numbered 2500
but bystanders estimated the crowd at 100-150. The
representative advised that the organization had not applied
for a permit for the event. END SUMMARY.
¶2. (SBU) The human rights lawyer told the Embassy that those
arrested were being charged under the Miscellaneous Offenses
Act, not the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). He said
that a senior official of the police’s Law and Order Unit
(which is charged with enforcing POSA) had refused at the
station to book them under POSA, insisting instead that other
police charge them under the lesser offense. According to
the lawyer, the official had said he “was tired” of dealing
with demonstrators and that POSA bookings were a “waste of
time.” (Comment: Historically, POSA has been used as a
pretext to arrest and detain regime opponents briefly but not
to convict or imprison them for any length of time. End
comment.) The lawyer expected all those detained to be
released on February 5 or 6, perhaps after paying nominal
fines.
¶3. (SBU) Beaten but not arrested was NCA President Lovemore
Madhuku, who was taken from the scene of the protest and
beaten severely by police before being dumped, bleeding and
semi-conscious, on a roadside on the edge of town. Retrieved
later in the day by supporters, he refused to seek admission
to hospital out of fear that authorities would come after him
again, according to the lawyer. His injuries included
bruises all over his body, a deep cut on his head, and chest
pains. Madhuku told a foreign diplomat February 5 that the
police beating him had said that they would have to
“eliminate” him at some stage, but then backed off and were
helping him to staunch his bleeding before they dumped him
out of their truck. He told the diplomat that he planned to
go back to work on February 6.
¶4. (C) COMMENT: Keeping to form, the GOZ has responded to a
non-violent opposition event with just enough brutal but
non-lethal force to disperse the event quickly and to project
a deterrent message. The Law and Order Unit’s reported lack
of enthusiasm suggests an ambivalence among many police
toward Zimbabwe’s frequent but modest efforts at civil
disobedience. Indeed, much of Zimbabwe’s protest activity
has become ritualized, with protesters and police becoming so
familiar with their roles and with each other that they joke
among themselves on the margins of many events and at the
police station. Such ambivalence and chumminess, however,
alarms the heavily politicized higher police echelons, who
reportedly are responding with personnel moves to politicize
the department’s mid-ranks more deeply in an effort to assure
a more disciplined reaction to opposition activities.
Concerns for police discipline and capacity also fuel the
GOZ’s reportedly increasing reliance on the military and the
youth militia to suppress opposition activities, including
political campaigning.
¶5. (C) COMMENT (CONT’D): The NCA continues to be one of the
more confrontational of Zimbabwe’s numerous non-violent
politically oriented NGOs. Some of the opposition MDC
party’s principals are former principals of the NCA, and the
NCA made a strong solidarity statement at December’s MDC
party conference. The NCA nonetheless openly opposes any
constitutional talks between the MDC and ZANU-PF and
self-consciously distances itself from the MDC at times. The
iconoclastic constitutional scholar Madhuku, who has been
arrested ten times for acts of civil disobedience, can be
counted on to continue his public campaign for a new
“people’s” constitution with varying degrees of coordination
with the MDC. For its part, the MDC is comfortable with
having the NCA and civil society bear the brunt of the GOZ’s
brutal intolerance as it continues to evaluate the
environment for a party-engineered mass action.
SULLIVAN
(45 VIEWS)
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