Action Alert: Take action against state sponsored brutality
March 20th, 2007
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Member of Parliament, Nelson Chamisa, was brutally attacked on Sunday 18 March 2007 at the Harare airport. He was on his way to attend an European Union-African Caribbean Pacific (EU-ACP) meeting in Brussels. Nelson was one of three MPs representing the Zimbabwean parliament at the meeting.
Glenys Kinnock, chairwoman of the European Union delegation to the Brussels meeting, has confirmed that three lower level Zanu PF officials were expected in Brussels. These three officials are NOT on the EU travel ban and have left for Brussles already; they are arriving tonight (Monday 19 March).
A statement from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum describes the attack yesterday as follows:
Reports indicate that he was assaulted with an iron bar by approximately six to eight male persons who took his luggage, computer and cell phone and made off in two unmarked cars, one of which was described as a Peugeot 306. Chamisa suffered a fracture to the bone surrounding his eye and massive lacerations to his forehead and face.
While not being able to identify the perpetrators, it is clear that the attack was intended to stop the participation of the outspoken member of Parliament at the Brussels meeting in his capacity as a representative of the Parliament of Zimbabwe. In the process, he would be in a position to give first – hand report to the Bureau of the brutality of state agents towards those with differing political views, and the increasing impunity, which accompanies their actions.
Glenys Kinnock has also said: “It is clear that the participation of ZANU-PF delegates in the ACP-EU meeting would send a terrible signal [...] We owe it to Nelson to take a strong and unequivocal position at this critical time for the people of Zimbabwe.”
Nelson was among the many opposition activists brutally tortured last week. This is his account of the attacks, published yesterday in The Observer (UK):
… a gang of about 35 very rowdy police came in. They told us to lie on our stomachs. They beat us with truncheons, metal bars, rifle butts and a sjambok (a short whip).’
‘They shouted things like “Mugabe is king of this country. He will die in office. You will die firstâ€. They lifted my legs and stomped on my testicles so hard they moved up into my abdomen. I screamed. They beat my back and my head with truncheons. Then I was hit with an iron bar on my buttocks. They used that bar on Morgan and on Grace Kwinjeh. The sjambok is terrible because it rips away your flesh.
‘Other police watched as if they were spectators at a wrestling match shouting “Hit him. Make them bleed.†They called out Madhuku and made him stand and then beat him badly. Then Grace. They used the iron bar on her head until her ear was flapping. They called my name and I was in the roasting pan. At that point they all went for Tsvangirai, hitting his head so hard his blood flew on the wall. When he fell unconscious they poured water on him and beat him some more.
This is the story that Nelson Chamisa would have told the members at the meeting had he not been viciously assaulted with iron bars and prevented from travelling to Brussels.
Nelson may be in hospital and unable to tell his story, but we are not, and we the Zimbabwean people can support him and all the people standing in the frontline of our fight for democracy, justice and freedom.
Nelson Chamisa was going to be speaking out for us. Let us now speak out for him and all the opposition activists who were tortured last week!
Opposition activists are standing up for us. We must stand behind them and support them.
We, the Zimbabwean people, need to send a clear message to Robert Mugabe and his vicious thugs that beating an opposition MP over the head with an iron bar will NOT achieve his objectives because we are standing right behind our leaders and we will speak out for them when we have to.
TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW!
The meeting is due to start today Tuesday, 20 March (this afternoon) and will end tomorrow, Wednesday 21 March.
1. Please email Glenys Kinnock and thank her for her outspoken response against the use of violence towards an elected Member of Parliament. Thank her on behalf of Nelson, who is still in hospital, and on behalf of all Zimbabweans. Ask her to please do what she can to ensure that this horrific assault is placed on the meeting’s agenda in Brussels
These are her email addresses: glenys.kinnock@europarl.europa.eu; gkinnock@welshlabourmeps.org.uk
2. Send an email to these other European MPs, and tell them what happened to Nelson. Tell them that we, the Zimbabwean people, object to Zanu PF officials being at that meeting after what they have done to Nelson.
Tell them that when Mugabe tried to keep Nelson’s voice from being heard, he was really trying to silence the voice of the people.
Please ask them to ensure that this issue features on the meeting’s agenda.
Send your email to all these addresses (copy and paste into the ‘to’ section of your email):
info@acpsec.org; michael.gahler@europarl.europa.eu; paul.verges@europarl.europa.eu; astrid.lulling@europarl.europa.eu; michal.kaminski@sejm.pl; john.bowis@europarl.europa.eu; helene.goudin@telia.com
The addresses above correlate to the details below respectively:
- General address for the General Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
- Mr Michael Gahler
- Mr Paul Verges
- Ms Astrid Lulling
- Mr MichalTomasz Kamin’ski
- Mr Miguel Angel Martinez Martinez
- Mr John Bowis
- Mrs Hélène Goudin
Forward this message onto all your friends and ask them to do the same.
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March 21st, 2007 13:52
Today is Human Rights day in South Africa, and I’ve blogged about the continued abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe. But people have been saying these things for years.