BY BRIGGS BOMBA

HARARE — Riot police and ruling party thugs on June 16 viciously attacked a peaceful commemoration of the 1976 Soweto uprising. More than 70 people were beaten and arrested. Munyaradzi Gwisai, Zimbabwe's only socialist member of parliament, was singled out and severely beaten.

The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had called the rally, known as the Day of the African Child, in honour of the youth and students who were massacred by the apartheid regime in South Africa. However, the MDC leadership did not show up because the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), had threatened to crush the rally.

Members of the International Socialist Organisation were the only leadership on hand to lead the hundreds of young people who had gathered. Gwisai and I took to the podium. While I was addressing the crowd, riot police and ZANU-PF thugs attacked the people, threw teargas grenades and fired shots. Police trucks drove right into the crowd, injuring some people,

Gwisai tried to reason with the police, but they would not listen. They severely thrashed him, and everyone else in sight. Geoff Nyarota, the editor of the independent Daily News, told the BBC that three of his journalists had been beaten by police as they tried to cover the march.

More than 70 people were dragged away to the police cells. They were arrested under the provisions of the repressive Public Order and Security Act. The detainees were released on bail on June 18.

Please send messages of support to <isozim@hotmail.com>. Green Left Weekly readers are urged to phone the Zimbabwe High Commission in Canberra on (02) 6286 2700. Send protest emails to <zanupf@africaonline.co.zw>.

[Briggs Bomba is a member of the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe.]

From Green Left Weekly, June 26, 2002.
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