Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 19:15:21 -0700
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis -- Police Officers Protest to Minister on ZANU-PF
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
Commonwealth:;, Press:;
From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Police officers have protested to Dumiso Dabengwa, the Minister of Home Affairs, against being used to support Zanu PF. A police internal signal, a copy of which was sent to The Daily News, shows that some officers were unhappy with orders allegedly issued by Dabengwa on 1 April, apparently during the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) march. The lawmen told Dabengwa that he should be cautious when issuing certain orders to police officers. The officers, who signed themselves as the "True ZRP Officers Nationwide" do not give details of the orders issued. Part of the signal read: "Exercise extreme caution before issuing orders such as those issued nationwide on Saturday. We represent a vast majority of ZRP officers who do not accept our role as a party police for any political party. We expect the situation to be addressed as a matter of urgency in line with the Criminal Procedure and Evidence and Police Acts and in line with the court's ruling."
The court had ruled the NCA go ahead with the march after the police had told them to cancel it because war veterans were having their march at the same time. The police officers said Dabengwa should comply with their request. "Failure to comply or a repeat of such orders as issued last Saturday will see us take a stand," they said. Dabengwa said he was unaware of the signal or the orders referred to. Inspector Bothwell Mugariri, the police spokesman, said the signal was fake. "That did not emanate from our system," he said. A peaceful march by the NCA turned riotous after war veterans disrupted it on 1 April. The war veterans accused the NCA of backing the Movement for Democratic Change. Riot police were called in to quell the violence in which the war veterans attacked all and sundry with impunity.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting those people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis -- Police Officers Protest to Minister on ZANU-PF
Cc: "Australian government":;, "British government":;,
"Canadian government":
;, "South African government":;,
Commonwealth:;, Press:;
From The Daily News, 23 May 2000
Police officers have protested to Dumiso Dabengwa, the Minister of Home Affairs, against being used to support Zanu PF. A police internal signal, a copy of which was sent to The Daily News, shows that some officers were unhappy with orders allegedly issued by Dabengwa on 1 April, apparently during the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) march. The lawmen told Dabengwa that he should be cautious when issuing certain orders to police officers. The officers, who signed themselves as the "True ZRP Officers Nationwide" do not give details of the orders issued. Part of the signal read: "Exercise extreme caution before issuing orders such as those issued nationwide on Saturday. We represent a vast majority of ZRP officers who do not accept our role as a party police for any political party. We expect the situation to be addressed as a matter of urgency in line with the Criminal Procedure and Evidence and Police Acts and in line with the court's ruling."
The court had ruled the NCA go ahead with the march after the police had told them to cancel it because war veterans were having their march at the same time. The police officers said Dabengwa should comply with their request. "Failure to comply or a repeat of such orders as issued last Saturday will see us take a stand," they said. Dabengwa said he was unaware of the signal or the orders referred to. Inspector Bothwell Mugariri, the police spokesman, said the signal was fake. "That did not emanate from our system," he said. A peaceful march by the NCA turned riotous after war veterans disrupted it on 1 April. The war veterans accused the NCA of backing the Movement for Democratic Change. Riot police were called in to quell the violence in which the war veterans attacked all and sundry with impunity.
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting those people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
