News / National
Freedom First project: Statement on security shootings on unarmed civilians
16 Aug 2018 at 12:31hrs | Views
Freedom First project notes with great concern the security heavy handedness of handling the demonstrations that rocked Harare on Wednesday the 1st of August 2018 following what opposition supporters viewed as the delay in the announcement of the presidential election results.
We find it very disturbing that the response to the public disturbance by our security forces led to the loss of lives.
It is also disturbing that, two weeks after this unfortunate incidence the nation has not been given official figures on the dead and injured and who these people are. What is most disturbing is the fact that the video footages on circulation show security forces shooting at people who are running away? We saw this happening during the 1980s in Matebeleland and we again witnessed this during the food riots in the 1990s. We therefore call upon the country's security forces to learn to deal with public discontent differently. Killing innocent civilians will never make us a better nation.
On the same issue we will like to welcome the statement by the president elect to the effect that an independent enquiry shall be setup consisting of foreign and local nationals. We hope this initiative will give answers as to what really happened. It is our hope that the findings of such a commission will be made public immediately after the conclusion of the enquiry.
We will also want to take this opportunity to encourage the incoming president to make public the findings of the Dumbutshena and Chihambagwe Commissions of the 1980s. As an organisation we are deeply concerned about statements issued by some International Observers and the so-called political analyst that seem to be blaming demonstrators and their leadership for the fatal shootings by the security forces.
We want to make this clear that no stone throwing incident can justifying cold blooded shooting of innocent civilians.
It is this wrong mentality of blaming the victims of violence that has kept the Matebeleland genocide unresolved for three decades.
We therefore urge the families of the victims of Wednesday shooting to make sure that their relatives get justice by working around the clock to get those who did it get prosecuted. As an organisation we fully support any legal efforts that may be undertaken to ensure that the affected get justice.
We find it very disturbing that the response to the public disturbance by our security forces led to the loss of lives.
It is also disturbing that, two weeks after this unfortunate incidence the nation has not been given official figures on the dead and injured and who these people are. What is most disturbing is the fact that the video footages on circulation show security forces shooting at people who are running away? We saw this happening during the 1980s in Matebeleland and we again witnessed this during the food riots in the 1990s. We therefore call upon the country's security forces to learn to deal with public discontent differently. Killing innocent civilians will never make us a better nation.
On the same issue we will like to welcome the statement by the president elect to the effect that an independent enquiry shall be setup consisting of foreign and local nationals. We hope this initiative will give answers as to what really happened. It is our hope that the findings of such a commission will be made public immediately after the conclusion of the enquiry.
We will also want to take this opportunity to encourage the incoming president to make public the findings of the Dumbutshena and Chihambagwe Commissions of the 1980s. As an organisation we are deeply concerned about statements issued by some International Observers and the so-called political analyst that seem to be blaming demonstrators and their leadership for the fatal shootings by the security forces.
We want to make this clear that no stone throwing incident can justifying cold blooded shooting of innocent civilians.
It is this wrong mentality of blaming the victims of violence that has kept the Matebeleland genocide unresolved for three decades.
We therefore urge the families of the victims of Wednesday shooting to make sure that their relatives get justice by working around the clock to get those who did it get prosecuted. As an organisation we fully support any legal efforts that may be undertaken to ensure that the affected get justice.
Source - Dumisani Mpofu [Executive Coordinator]
