ComPoW is shocked at the arrests of Zimbabwe Independent Editors Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimhakure: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-05-11-two-newspaper-editors-arrested-in-zimbabwe As an organisation we are solidly behind the efforts to establish normalcy in Zimbabwe and have watched with interest the progress that is being made by the Government of National Unity in that country. It still remains our hope that Zimbabwe will be able to shed its pariah image and the starting point will certainly be the free flow of information. Arrests and detentions of journalists have always been the weakness of the Zimbabwean Government. Whilst criminal defamation and the publishing of unlawful stories must surely be punishable in any society, this must follow lawful criminal proceedings. A quick thought will go to the involvement of the Court and an application for an injunction against the Zimbabwe Independent and also a search warrant allowing the police to lawfully enter the premises of the Zimbabwe Independent and search for the documents. There seems to be an absence of both and police acted on their own. Given the involvement of senior officers of the police it can not be far-fetched that they may actually have instigated the raids and that this can only be for sinister motives. The article in question implicated the following senior members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police: Reggies Chitekwe, Joel Tenderere, Elliot Muchada, Joshua Muzanango, Crispen Makedenge, Peter Magwenzi and Simon Nyathi: http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/index.php/local/22570-cio-police-role-in-activists-abduction-revealed Because of their implication it will set a very bad precedent for Zimbabwe if the action of the police is allowed. Among other things it will create a police force that is not accountable to anyone, a situation that is unsafe in a democracy. Journalists play a very vital role in providing citizens with information important in subjecting public authorities and security agencies such as the police to scrutiny. Like any other citizens they too should be accountable for their actions but this accountability should follow a laid down procedure that is acceptable under international human rights standards. An application to a judge in chambers followed by the interim measures; a search warrant and an injunction enforceable on Zimbabwe Independent would have done better to restore confidence in the Zimbabwe Republic Police. In the absence of this the action of the police represents scare tactics aimed at muzzling the voices of journalists at a crucial time of reform and re-engagement in Zimbabwe. It implies an attitude where the police say their excesses can not be known by the same public which pays their salaries. Effective policing is not intimidatory, it does not alienate the same citizens it seeks to work for. Effective policing must rely on the citizenry as it is the citizenry which in most cases provide the clues essential in solving criminal offences. Policing that unlawfully arrests journalists for no other crime than to report on alleged violations by senior members of the ZRP is not in the interest of the public. If at all it alienates the public because its visible objective is to create a deficiency of information by putting a cog on the free flow of information. The Zimbabwean legal system provides the above senior members of the ZRP, who are also citizens of Zimbabwe, with the right to sue a journalist for libel or defamation. This can be done by the aggrieved parties in their own right severally, jointly or individually or by the ZRP if they have been defamed as an organisation. Engaging in unlawful actions at a time when Zimbabwe is trying to show the world that it is changing for the better is counter-productive and also flies in the face of the epistemology of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The value system of the organisation ought to derive from the value system of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle whose objective was to create a free, united society, which respects the rule of law and in which security agencies are not there to monitor the citizens or to intimidate them but to serve, assist and protect them. Arrogant policing, which intimidates and monitors people ought to have been an element of Rhodesian-era policing because it is oppressive; anti-people and anti-progress kind because it criminalises Zimbabweans going about their normal duties in different spheres of life. At this point in time ComPoW also calls for the correct actions always as we do not want to set up a precedent where wrong and unlawful arrests are made only to be reversed at the intervention of “sympathetic politicians”. Correct policing must be the modus operandi of the ZRP and this should have no substitute. As we call for the release of Vincent and Constantine, we challenge the senior police officers cited to rebut the allegations on them in the correct way if they so wish or else they will have to stick and be investigated with the possibility that they too be accountable for the alleged torture of Jestina Mukoko and the 15 other activists who were in their alleged care. “COMPOW: COMPATIBLE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS, JUSTICE AND PEACE IN DEVELOPMENT!” Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa: DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND COMPLIANCE Contact details: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk / 00447529705413