lennart
24-03-03, 18:43
Opposition groups in Zimbabwe say that government security forces have arrested and beaten hundreds of people following last week's widely observed general strike.
Amnesty International says that up to 500 people have been detained in "a new and dangerous phase of repression".
Following the strike, President Robert Mugabe warned the opposition Movement for Democratic Change not to instigate violence, saying: "Those who play with fire will not only be burnt but consumed."
The BBC's Barnaby Philips in Johannesburg says that all the evidence points to a new crackdown of unprecedented brutality.
'Children assaulted'
A doctor working in a hospital in the capital, Harare, said more than 250 people have been treated there after being beaten by the security forces; many had broken fingers or toes, some had broken legs.
Two women described how men in military uniforms stripped them, beat them, and used guns to sexually abuse them.
The MDC says that children of opposition activists have been assaulted.
Lawyer and director of the publishers of the Daily News Gugulethu Moyo says she was beaten by five men in Harare central police station after going there to enquire about a Daily News photographer who had been arrested.
"The cells were so full I had to stand, which was okay because my backside was so bruised I could not lie down," she said.
'Crying foul'
"We are fast losing count of people being detained and tortured because it's now happening every hour," MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told Reuters news agency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2881093.stm
De coalitie voor vrede en veiligheid gaat het druk krijgen, maar we zullen overwinnen. Ik wacht met smart op woorden van de kruisvaarders dat we ook in Zimbabwe vrede en veiligheid gaan brengen :duim:
Amnesty International says that up to 500 people have been detained in "a new and dangerous phase of repression".
Following the strike, President Robert Mugabe warned the opposition Movement for Democratic Change not to instigate violence, saying: "Those who play with fire will not only be burnt but consumed."
The BBC's Barnaby Philips in Johannesburg says that all the evidence points to a new crackdown of unprecedented brutality.
'Children assaulted'
A doctor working in a hospital in the capital, Harare, said more than 250 people have been treated there after being beaten by the security forces; many had broken fingers or toes, some had broken legs.
Two women described how men in military uniforms stripped them, beat them, and used guns to sexually abuse them.
The MDC says that children of opposition activists have been assaulted.
Lawyer and director of the publishers of the Daily News Gugulethu Moyo says she was beaten by five men in Harare central police station after going there to enquire about a Daily News photographer who had been arrested.
"The cells were so full I had to stand, which was okay because my backside was so bruised I could not lie down," she said.
'Crying foul'
"We are fast losing count of people being detained and tortured because it's now happening every hour," MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told Reuters news agency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2881093.stm
De coalitie voor vrede en veiligheid gaat het druk krijgen, maar we zullen overwinnen. Ik wacht met smart op woorden van de kruisvaarders dat we ook in Zimbabwe vrede en veiligheid gaan brengen :duim: