HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Before the family of Kelvin Tinashe
Choto knew he had been killed, social media in Zimbabwe was circulating a photo
of his battered body lying on the reception counter of a local police station.
Angry protesters had left him there.
The 22-year-old was shot in the head, one of at least a
dozen people killed since Monday in a violent crackdown by security forces on
protests against a dramatic increase in fuel prices.
Dozens of Zimbabweans have been shot . Others say they have
been hunted down in their homes at night, with soldiers and masked people in
plainclothes dragging them away, severely beating them and leaving them for
dead.
Chamisa was the funeral today |
Some are activists and labour leaders. Others, like Choto,
have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. A captain at a small soccer
club in Chitungwiza, a town southeast of the capital, Harare, he had been
planning to travel to neighboring South Africa next week to look for
better-paying teams.
“He was our future,” said his father, Julius Choto, as the
family buried him on Saturday. Teammates chanted the team’s war cry, handed the
family his jersey and carried his coffin. “He was disciplined, respectable and
nonviolent. All he cared for was his football. He was a very good footballer.”
His son had been watching the protests from a soccer field,
“some meters away from the action,” on Tuesday when he was gunned down.
“Maybe they thought he was an (opposition) activist since
he was wearing a red Manchester United jersey,” his father told The Associated
Press.
The family only discovered his body the following morning
at a local mortuary.
“I have been robbed,” his father said, crying. “He was my
only son and his future was bright. I have been robbed by the state.”
Such accounts have quickly undermined the faith of many
Zimbabweans in the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was briefly
cheered when he took over after the ouster of longtime, repressive leader
Robert Mugabe in late 2017. Since then, the country’s already staggering
economy has weakened even more.
Growing frustration over rising inflation, a severe
currency crisis and fuel lines that stretch for miles finally snapped after
Mnangagwa announced a week ago that fuel prices would more than double, making
gasoline in Zimbabwe the most expensive in the world.
Civic leaders called for Zimbabweans to stay at home for
three days in protest. Other people took to the streets. Some looted, in desperation
or anger. The military was called in, and with Mnangagwa leaving on an extended
overseas trip, the hard-line former military commander and Vice President
Constantino Chiwenga was left in charge. A crackdown began.
In what critics have called an attempt to cover up abuses,
the government in the past few days has imposed internet shutdowns across the
country, ordering telecoms to block popular social media apps or everything at
once.
“The internet was a tool that was used to coordinate the
violence,” presidential spokesman George Charamba asserted on state television
Saturday night, referring to protesters.
The internet shutdowns have given security forces cover to
commit violations “away from the glare of the international community,” said
Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
The reports of abuses come as Mnangagwa prepares to attend
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, appealing for foreign
investment in a country he repeatedly says is “open for business.”
At one hospital in Harare alone, the waiting room and
corridors were packed with victims.
“They came at the middle of the night, kicking doors and
throwing tear gas to force us out. Once they had rounded all up men in the
area, they assaulted us using motorbike chains,” one man said.
Another man with burnt hands said he and others had been
forced to put out burning tires with their bare hands. They all spoke condition
of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Albert Taurai, who had a broken spine, said he had ventured
out to look for bread when he saw a group of plainclothes, armed men
approaching.
They struck people with iron bars on the back, thighs and
ankles “so that we would not be able to run away,” he said. The masked men told
them: “Zimbabwe will never be shut down.”
“I am 46 years old,” Taurai said. “I have seen both Mugabe
and Mnangagwa. This just is worse than Mugabe.”
Zimbabwe’s government has defended the response by security
forces, and police spokeswoman Charity Charamba on Saturday expressed “grave
concern” that people were committing crimes while wearing police or military
uniforms. Some of the uniforms had been seized by “rogue elements” during the
protests, she said.
Otherwise, “adequate security” was in place to ensure that
people in Zimbabwe go about their lives, army spokesman Overson Mugwisi said.
They did not take questions.
The government blames the unrest on the opposition and
calls it “terrorism.”
The main opposition MDC party, which had contested
Mnangagwa’s narrow election win last year in court, “is hoping to influence the
international community’s view of Zimbabwe. They are hoping a government of
national unity will arise from this. It will not happen,” the deputy
information minister, Energy Mutodi, told the AP.
The leader of that opposition, Nelson Chamisa, attended the
funeral of Choto the soccer player on Saturday, to loud cheers.
The government should compensate the victims of this week’s
crackdown, Chamisa said. He said Mnangagwa’s government has turned out to be
much like Mugabe’s.
“This is a sick government, because no serious government
will deploy the military and ammunition on ordinary citizens,” he said, Choto’s
seven-month-old daughter in his arms.
0 comments:
Post a Comment