Zimbabwe police arrest 78 women

HARARE – Police arrested 78 women at the weekend when they tried to hold a protest to mark World Refugee Day and draw attention to the plight of Zimbabweans who they say are living like refugees, their lawyer said yesterday.

The women, some of them by-standers, were arrested in the second city of Bulawayo yesterday, where activists from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were attempting to stage a demonstration, lawyer Lucas Nkomo told AFP. “It appears there was an indiscriminate arrest of women and there was a huge number who were not participating in the demonstration,” he said.Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not confirm the number of arrests but told AFP the women would soon appear in court “for holding an illegal gathering.”The WOZA group, which lobbies for the rights of women and also holds regular street protests against president Robert Mugabe’s government, has said it was staging Saturday’s demonstration because “life for many Zimbabweans is the life of refugees.”Nkomo said some of the arrested women were released late Saturday, but 43 were still in custody yesterday and were being questioned by police.Zimbabwe, which has been led by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980, has been beset for years by a massive economic and political crisis, blamed partly on his controversial policy of land redistribution that has helped transform what was once Africa’s breadbasket into a land of recurring food shortages.- Nampa-AFP”It appears there was an indiscriminate arrest of women and there was a huge number who were not participating in the demonstration,” he said.Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not confirm the number of arrests but told AFP the women would soon appear in court “for holding an illegal gathering.”The WOZA group, which lobbies for the rights of women and also holds regular street protests against president Robert Mugabe’s government, has said it was staging Saturday’s demonstration because “life for many Zimbabweans is the life of refugees.”Nkomo said some of the arrested women were released late Saturday, but 43 were still in custody yesterday and were being questioned by police.Zimbabwe, which has been led by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980, has been beset for years by a massive economic and political crisis, blamed partly on his controversial policy of land redistribution that has helped transform what was once Africa’s breadbasket into a land of recurring food shortages.- Nampa-AFP