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Zim leaders denied medical help
14/09/2006 19:10 - (SA)
Harare - Several labour leaders who tried to stage anti-government protests in Zimbabwe were assaulted and injured in police custody and are being denied medical attention in one of the capital's harshest jails, said their lawyer on Thursday.
Attorney Alec Muchadehama said the labour activists, arrested on Wednesday, were at the Mtapi police cells in southern Harare.
He said sixteen of 24 activists arrested in Harare, including the main labour federation leader Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibebe, were held at Mtapi.
"I wasn't allowed to speak to them, but saw from a distance there were injuries from assaults."
Chibebe, speaking on a mobile phone from jail on Wednesday said police beat him and others with batons and rifle butts.
No government comment was immediately available.
Police sealed off streets and thwarted protests on Wednesday, arresting more than 100 activists nationwide.
Protesters released without charge
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had planned marches in cities and towns across the country to protest economic policies it said had left most Zimbabweans living in poverty.
Mlamleli Sibanda, a spokesperson for the federation, said protesters in the second city of Bulawayo were released without charge late on Wednesday and others in the eastern provincial capital of Mutare were released after paying fines.
The opposition-allied labour federation is demanding pay increases, minimum wages linked to the official poverty line, tax breaks for low income earners and price regulation to cushion the effects of inflation nearing 1 000%, the highest in the world.
It also wants a halt to police harassment of street vendors that has continued since a brutal government slum clearance last year that United Nations officials said deprived about 700 000 people of their homes and livelihoods and affected another 2.4 million.
Protests against economic hardships
Zimbabwe is reeling from runaway inflation, record unemployment and acute shortages of food, gasoline and imports, along with an HIV and Aids epidemic that kills about 3 000 people a week.
The agriculture-based economy collapsed after the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000.
The main political opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, has called for civil disobedience and street protests against deepening economic hardships, but the fractured party has given no program of action.
Wednesday's police operation to head off the protests and the evident lack of support and fears over joining street demonstrations cast doubts over the ability of government opponents to organise future mass action.
Employers noted many workers showed little enthusiasm for a proposed national strike on Wednesday or even brief walkouts to join marches, fearing they could lose their jobs.
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Zimbabwe Special Report
