wfn.org | WCC Expresses Concern About "Torture" of Zimbabwe Journalists

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5-February-1999 
99056 
 
    WCC Expresses Concern About "Torture" 
    Of Zimbabwe Journalists 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA--The World Council of Churches (WCC) has added its voice to 
international concern about claims that two Zimbabwean journalists were 
tortured by Zimbabwean military police and secret service agents because of 
a newspaper article about an alleged plot against the Harare government. 
 
    The alleged abuses came barely a month after the WCC held its 8th 
Assembly in Harare amid assurances by the government of President Robert 
Mugabe that human rights are respected in Zimbabwe. 
 
    On Jan. 26, riot police in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, used tear gas to 
break up a demonstration protesting against the alleged torture of the two 
journalists.  About 200 police officers armed with rifles, shotguns and 
tear gas surrounded the parliament building and closed off 
the city's Africa Unity Square. 
 
    The two journalists - Mark Chavunduka, editor of "The Standard," an 
independent newspaper, and Ray Choto, a senior reporter - were freed on 
bail last week after being charged with publishing false information 
capable of causing alarm and despondency.  After being released, they said 
that they had been subjected to torture - including electric shocks to 
their genitals - by military police and agents of Zimbabwe's Central 
Intelligence Organization. 
 
    Reporters in Harare said that the two journalists were limping when 
they were released, and that their hands and feet were severely swollen. 
 
    A WCC spokesperson, John Newbury, told ENI  that the forms of torture 
that the two journalists had alleged - holding victims' heads under water 
and applying electric shock during interrogation - "were identified by the 
WCC nearly 25 years ago as clear early warning signs of impending 
widespread and systematic human rights abuse in militarized societies." 
 
    Newbury said that WCC staff were "in close contact with churches, 
church-related groups and human rights organizations in Zimbabwe to 
determine how they understand what has happened, and how they are 
responding on behalf of the journalists who were arrested and of civil 
society as a whole." 
 
    The WCC was "offering its support and solidarity to the churches and 
others in their efforts to counter such trends," Newbury said. 
 
    The two journalists said that they had been tortured to make them 
reveal their sources for a report this month in "The Standard" that 23 army 
officers had been arrested in December for plotting a coup against the 
Mugabe government. 
 
    The newspaper stated that the officers were plotting a coup because of 
Zimbabwe's involvement in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of 
Congo.  Many Zimbabweans believe that their country, which is facing severe 
financial difficulties, cannot afford to take part in the war. Some media 
reports claim Zimbabwe's involvement costs $1 million a day. 
 
    During the Dec. 3-14 WCC Assembly, which was addressed by President 
Mugabe, WCC officials repeatedly declined to comment on allegations of 
violations of human and civil rights in Zimbabwe, saying that it was a 
long-standing WCC practice not to criticize governments of countries 
hosting WCC meetings. 
 
    The reports of torture have prompted the Commonwealth Human Rights 
Initiative, an international non-governmental charity which works to 
promote human rights in Commonwealth countries, to call for an independent 
investigation into the allegations.  The British government has 
also called on the Zimbabwean government to investigate the claims, and, if 
warranted, to press charges against those responsible. 

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