Editors of Zimbabwe Independent newspaper arrested

As the State moves swiftly to protect its agents of human rights crimes
 
Today we saw conflicting headlines in the herald. The Information, Communication and technology Minister Nelson Chamisa applauded the just ended stakeholder media conference held in Kariba under the theme ‘Towards an Open, Tolerant and Responsible Media environment ‘. He’s quoted as saying that “this is a break from the past, a troubled mind does not breed a perfect mind. There is an appetite to address media issues.” He hailed Media, information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu for ‘demonstrating determination to create a vibrant media in the country’

The same page carried a headline ‘Zim Ind journalists arrested’, a story that details yesterday's arrest of Zimbabwe independent editor Vincent Kahiya and the paper’s news editor Constantine Chimakure for publishing a special feature implicating various security personnel in the abductions, detentions and torture of MDC and human rights activists.

We received an alert today of the release of the two journalists on $200 bail. They were remanded out of custody until the end of this month (28 March).

They will appear before courts on charges under criminal Law (Codification and reform) Act, in which the state’s case would be that their story in last Friday’s edition was published with intention of undermining public in law enforcement agents.

The irony however lies in the fact that the law enforcement agents themselves have lost credibility stemming from their inability to maintain law and order during the post March 29 elections violence, their apparent involvement in partisan politics and the violation of people’s rights and freedoms.

In any working democracy, the people who should be arrested and investigated are the named officers (Assistant Director External of the CIO Retired general Brigadier Asher Walter Tapfumanei, police superintendents Reggis Chitekwe, Joel Tendere, detective inspectors Elliot Muchada and Joshua Muzanango, officer commanding CID Homicide Crispen Makadenge, chief superintendent Peter Magwenzi and Senior Assistant Commissioner Simon Nyati. The people would want to know that these people together with their principal are made to account for their clandestine activities that undermined the affected political and human rights prisoners abducted between October and December 2008.

We want to remind the inclusive Government that we are inclined towards favouring a system that advocates for true justice and restitution from rights violations especially when the identity of people involved is known. The government seems keen to protect perpetrators of violence, politically motivated crimes and rights violations at the expense of justice. The use of a controversial pieces of repressive legislation to gag the media from highlighting the truth is indicative of the vindictive nature of our government. There is need for serious reform of mind and the repealing of all repressive legislations such as POSA, AIPPA, BSA and Criminal law (Codification and reform) Act.

The continued harassment of human rights/political activists and journalists should stop. Shadreck Manyere, a freelance journalist is still in detention ever since he was abducted by the state in 2008. Like all the prisoners of conscience still in detention and those recently granted bail, he was severely tortured and a confession forced out of him that the state uses to build their conspiracy theories. The first 100 days of the new Government has been marred by a continued deterioration and decline of people’s lives on both human rights and humanitarian levels.