News / National
MDC-T calls for the release of weekend detainees
12 Apr 2011 at 04:33hrs | Views
The MDC-T calls for an unconditional and immediate release of four pastors and 13 churchgoers currently in custody after their arrest at the weekend while commemorating the tragic events of 11 March 2007 at a prayer meeting in Glen Norah.
The party is further disheartened by the fact that Shakespeare Mukoyi, an MDC-T activist, and several others including one of the four pastors, who is in police custody together with Pastor Mukome, the Resident Priest at the Nazarene Church, Pastor Isaya were assaulted by the police. Reports indicate that they are being denied medical attention despite their injuries.
The 13 were arrested on Satruday and charged with committing the crime of 'public violence'. But witnesses who attended the disrupted church service charge the police fired teargas inside the church building as a way to disperse them after the police initially blocked the entrance to St Peters Kubatana Centre in Highfield, Harare.
Police later stormed a church hall in Glen Norah during prayer, and chased away the congregants, which included many church, civic and community leaders.
The police went on to indiscriminately fire tear gas canisters at residences and churches surrounding the venue of the church service.
Even children who were within and outside the parameters of the church were affected by the tear smoke and the police clampdown.
The church service was organised by a coalition of churches under the theme "Saving Zimbabwe….the unfinished journey". It was essentially an opportunity to pray for peace in Zimbabwe and to help save the
country.
During the 11 March 2007 Save Zimbabwe Prayer Meeting, where one activist Gift Tandare was shot dead while over 100 political and human rights activists, including President Tsvangirai, were arrested, tortured and detained through similar heavy-handed police action
The party is further disheartened by the fact that Shakespeare Mukoyi, an MDC-T activist, and several others including one of the four pastors, who is in police custody together with Pastor Mukome, the Resident Priest at the Nazarene Church, Pastor Isaya were assaulted by the police. Reports indicate that they are being denied medical attention despite their injuries.
The 13 were arrested on Satruday and charged with committing the crime of 'public violence'. But witnesses who attended the disrupted church service charge the police fired teargas inside the church building as a way to disperse them after the police initially blocked the entrance to St Peters Kubatana Centre in Highfield, Harare.
Police later stormed a church hall in Glen Norah during prayer, and chased away the congregants, which included many church, civic and community leaders.
The police went on to indiscriminately fire tear gas canisters at residences and churches surrounding the venue of the church service.
Even children who were within and outside the parameters of the church were affected by the tear smoke and the police clampdown.
The church service was organised by a coalition of churches under the theme "Saving Zimbabwe….the unfinished journey". It was essentially an opportunity to pray for peace in Zimbabwe and to help save the
country.
During the 11 March 2007 Save Zimbabwe Prayer Meeting, where one activist Gift Tandare was shot dead while over 100 political and human rights activists, including President Tsvangirai, were arrested, tortured and detained through similar heavy-handed police action
Source - MDC-T
