Amnesty slams Zimbabwe protesters arrest

Bloomberg

Amnesty International criticised the Zimbabwean authorities’ arrest of several human-rights activists who took part in protests against state corruption.
“The thwarting of the protest illustrates the Zimbabwean authorities’ total intolerance of criticism,” Muleya Mwananyanda, the human rights organisation’s deputy director for southern Africa, said in an emailed statement. He described the arrests as a “witch hunt.”
Several shops and gas stations were open in the capital, Harare, but many businesses were still closed and few people were on the streets. Traffic was sparse on all major roads leading into the city, with heavily armed soldiers and police manning roadblocks.
Previous protests, including those that took place in
January 2019, turned violent with retail outlets looted by protesters.
The authorities issued a warning to citizens against participating in the demonstrations. President Emmerson Mnangagwa labeled the protest plans an “insurrection” meant to overthrow his administration, which is presiding over inflation of 737%, food and fuel shortages and a collapsing local currency that’s led to demands by teachers, bankers and health-care workers to be paid in
US dollars.
There were arrests of some protesters, including that of novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and Fadzayi Mahere, a spokeswoman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change. They were charged with inciting public violence and breaching a public health order before being released on bail, and are scheduled to appear in the Harare Magistrate’s Court on September 17.
“The state is at war with its citizens,” Mahere’s lawyer, Chris Mhike, said by phone. “The right to protest peacefully against corruption and the national crisis in a safe, socially distant manner has been criminalised.”