Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter from Zimbabwe !

Dear Family and Friends,

There is a cold wind blowing through Zimbabwe this week; the white poinsettias are in full flower and the birds that people call the Seven Sisters (The White Helmetshrikes) are back in our gardens and open bushland. All are a sure sign that winter is here and these seasonal milestones are now almost the only things that are normal or predictable for Zimbabweans stuck in the eighth year of turmoil.

Sitting in the dark of an electricity power cut one night this week, listening to battery powered short wave radio, it was with disbelief that I heard what had happened to lawyers in Harare. A group of 30 lawyers had gathered outside the Harare High Court and were intending to walk to the nearby Parliament buildings to present a petition to the Minister of Justice. The lawyers were protesting the arrest of two of their colleagues, both prominent human rights practitioners. As the protesting lawyers gathered outside the High Court, so did the numbers of armed police. Within minutes a peaceful gathering under a clear blue winter sky turned into obscenity and mayhem.

Four lawyers, two of them women, one who is 80 years old, ran into the doorway of the Ministry of Justice, thinking they would be safe there. One of the women described what happened next: "They dragged us out and threw us into the back of a truck."

The lawyers were taken to an open area next to a golf driving range and entertainment centre on a busy main road leading into Harare. There, on the grass and in broad daylight, the lawyers were assaulted by the police. Beatrice Mtetwa, one of the lawyers said: "They were beating us everywhere, on my back, my stomach, my arms, my buttocks. It was such a spectacle. Motorists on the road nearby stopped to watch. A police car with two officers stopped. They rebuked the police who were beating us. They said: ' Why are you doing this in public?' Then we were abandoned there. They said: 'Now you can go and demonstrate with your swollen bodies.'

"When the electricity came back on that evening, there did not seem to be a report on the main ZBC TV news bulletin of eminent lawyers being beaten on the main road. Instead there were reports of high school fees and of water shortages and of a senior government official giving blankets to an orphanage and telling the audience to vote for Zanu PF in March 2008. The day after the assault of the lawyers there still seemed to be no mention of the event on ZBC news because now the top story was of electricity cuts for domestic areas of 20 hours a day.

Three days after our country's most prominent human rights lawyers were physically beaten by police in full view of men, women and children on the roadside, the United Nations elected Zimbabwe to head the Commission on Sustainable Development. What sort of a prize is this for a country which cannot feed itself, cannot generate sufficient electricity despite nature's abundant blessings, and where life expectancy is the lowest in the world? What shame on the UN and on the men in their suits and ties who lobbied for Zimbabwe to be chosen.

Do any of you ever need the services of a lawyer? I know some good ones in Harare!
Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 12 May 2007https://webmail.plus.net/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fafricantears.netfirms.comMy books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com