ACTSA Action Appeal: ZCTU leadership arrested in post election conflict
ACTSA are asking people to take action on behalf of Wellington Chibebe, General Secretary of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and Lovemore Matombo, President, who have been arrested and are being detained in Harare Central Police Staion.
ACTSA have an automatic protest email you can send to the Zimbabwean embassy from their website (link to email bit on ACTSA site here).
We suggest that you also do this: visit our Action Contact Database. We have now recorded the telephone numbers for a lot of the police stations in Zimbabwe. Select ‘Zimbabwe’ and then select ‘Government’ and look for Harare - and Harare Central Police Station.
Call the police station and tell them you are aware that these two people are being detained. Tell them you are watching and monitoring from afar and that any reports of ill treatment or harm will be relayed quickly to your own governments, to the press, and to human rights organisations everywhere.
Please be polite and friendly and assure them that you have the greatest confidence that the Zimbabwean Republic Police (ZRP) will behave with dignity and in line with the law - and with international human rights.
Wellington Chibebe, General Secretary of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), and Lovemore Matombo, President, have both been detained at the Harare Central Police Station in connection with the speeches made by them on May Day. They have been charged with inciting people to rise against the government and spreading falsehoods about the current political crisis in your country. Heavily armed policevisited their homeslooking for them. They currently remain in detention.
This latest development comes amidst a recent scaling up of post election violence against trade unionists and ordinary civilians. For instance, teachers, who served as supervisors at polling stations, have been systematically singled out, with 496 questioned, 133 assaulted and 123 charged with election fraud, according to the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.
Takavafira Zhou, President of the teachers’ union, said he believed that teachers were being singled out for their role in supervising the elections. Teachers gave harrowing accounts of their ordeals, most begging that their names not be used. “I’ll be hunted and killed,” said a school teacher from the rural Guruve District in Mashonaland Central Province in a New York Times report. He and five other teachers were hauled from their homes on April 26 by about 30 members of the ruling party’s youth militia, who beat them with iron bars, bicycle chains and thick tree branches. All are now in hiding.
May 9th, 2008 18:56
I despair………These are people who are prepared to sacrifice everyone in support of THEIR principles. I suppose it depends on whether ordinary Zims are prepared to make sacrifices too.!!
Looking at the blogs, news and feeds it seems that everything is falling down. that Mr Mugabe is cowing the ordinary person. From my perspective outside Zim I see a different picture. I see a very frightened man. I see a panicked and confused government trying to stem the changes which are inevitable. Despite the tragedy in Burma…the world is still watching developments in your homeland, it is you.. the people and citizens of Zimbabwe who will determine the future of Africa in the 21st century. You can choose to follow the old mantra of the West is evil and can contribute nothing to my future, or you can accept that globalism means that my neighbor is the person 5,000 miles away who is buying my products and visiting my country. The enlightened world has cast aside tribal loyalties and concentrated on personal enrichment. The enrichment that provides education for your children, Food, entertainment and security. Neither is available in either Burma or Zimbabwe. WHY…because both are ruled by people who are more interested in personal enrichment at the expense of their countries well being. I am humbled and shamed by the attitude of some of the people who share my life on this globe. DECIDE…ACT…VOTE.
May 9th, 2008 21:15
@ Sokwanele I have been officially made a member of all bug-one on facebook…. but hey…I can live with it…. I lifted this and copied to all the sites and groups and then emailed to all my mates….who fortunately are still talking to me just..lol…… I’ve been in contact with avaaz and they are working on a new campaign for us they assure me but I warned them about the email stuff ‘cos they have an auto mailing system and people in Zimbabwe will get replies from them..am still awaiting on a contact about donating money for bandages etc but it may have to be a personal drop and not an organisational drop…..If there is anything else I can do I have time on my hands….just point me to it…….
May 12th, 2008 19:27
Hi there….please can anyone supply me with fax numbers for the ministers,CIO,war vets,Bvudzijena and any other ones that I have left out…you can send them to me at mistyfifty@gmail.com….
Thanks so much…..