[Marxism] Living under 'Operation go to sleep' -- Zimbabwe

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title:  Living under 'Operation go to sleep'
Author: IRIN, Mhondoro
Category: Zimbabwe
Date: 4/11/2007
Source: IRIN News
Source Website: www.irin.org 
<http://www.africafiles.org/database/www.irin.org>

Summary & Comment: Zimbabwe is now being run on Operations. There was 
Murambatsvina, Maguta, Magarika and now Chirara. IM

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Living under 'Operation go to sleep'

As early as seven in the evening there is no sign of life at the Mamina 
shopping centre in Mhondoro, a village 100km west of Harare, the 
Zimbabwean capital. Since the police crackdown on the opposition in 
March, an unofficial curfew has been in place across the country. 
Residents have complained of raids on shopping centres, particularly 
pubs. A policeman who participated in the crackdown said the raids had 
been codenamed 'Operation Chirara' (Go to sleep), and their superiors 
had told them the action was necessary to forestall unrest.

A month ago, Mamina was a hub of activity: in its numerous liquor stores 
loud music blared till late at night while local residents sat drinking 
with the workers from nearby farms. "Since political disturbances flared 
up in Harare and elsewhere in early March there is virtually no night 
life here in Mhondoro," a resident told IRIN. "The police here have all 
but imposed a curfew on the people, and they are afraid to venture out 
after dusk." In February the police imposed a three-month ban on 
political gatherings, and then cracked down on the opposition Movement 
for Democratic Change (MDC) when it attempted to hold a meeting in 
Harare in March.

An opposition party supporter was killed and MDC leaders were beaten up. 
This set off a wave of violence: more opposition supporters were 
arrested and beaten up and there was a string of petrol bombings around 
the country. A resident claimed that since then the local police began 
raiding shops in Mhondoro, beating the patrons and forcing them to go 
home. "They [police] would come in a truck and order everyone out, 
saying no one was supposed to be seen drinking after nine ... [people] 
would hurriedly leave this place as soon as it gets dark, because they 
are afraid of being assaulted," said a shop owner. He is considering 
closing down his liquor outlet because of poor patronage. "I might only 
reopen after the elections next year." Zimbabwe is expected to hold both 
parliamentary and presidential elections by March 2008.

Police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, said he was not aware of 'Operation 
Chirara' and the raids, and would investigate. Samuel Katanha, a teacher 
at a local secondary school, now resorts to taking a tipple at home 
after being assaulted by the police during one of their raids. "One day 
they came and ordered everyone to lie face down. They used baton sticks 
to beat us and I made the mistake of challenging them ... The six of 
them turned on me and accused me of being big-headed because I was a 
teacher. They assaulted me all over the body and I suffered a broken 
tooth, but that did not deter them from arresting me and falsely 
accusing me of refusing to obey an order from the police," Katanha told 
IRIN.

His ordeal did not end there: when he visited the clinic, the nurse on 
duty told him that he needed to obtain a police report on how he 
sustained his injury, but the police refused to help him. "They told me 
to go and report to Raymond Majongwe [president of the Progressive 
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe] and that was when I decided to travel to 
Harare to see a private doctor, meeting my own transport and medical 
expenses." At the beginning of the year, the union organised a strike to 
demand higher salaries, so the police and members of the ruling party 
now view Katanha with suspicion because, as a schoolteacher, he is 
considered a member of the opposition.

Tonderai Gwari, 31, who pans for gold in the nearby Ngezi River with his 
friends and always looked forward to an evening at the shopping centre 
with them, said the police were "being overzealous over nothing". "I 
don't understand the brutal action by the police on fun-loving people. 
This area is a ZANU PF [ruling party] stronghold and there are no 
chances that the MDC will win here. We have not witnessed any cases 
whereby people tried to cause disturbances, and we cannot be made to 
live in fear in an area where we were born and bred," he told IRIN. 
Because of lack of transport and adequate manpower, Gwari claimed, the 
police were using youth militia and some war veterans to monitor 
shopping centres in the Mhondoro area, reporting individuals they 
suspected of being potential troublemakers.

He alleged that the militia had formed vigilante groups, which patrolled 
the area in the name of neighbourhood watch committees and told 
villagers that they would not receive food aid unless they were active 
members of the ruling party. "Since there is drought this year, there 
are plans to form food-for-work brigades, whereby people will reclaim 
gullies and participate in road construction, but these militia are 
saying that only active members of Zanu PF will be considered," said Gwari.

Pedzisayi Ruhanya of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a coalition of more than 300 
nongovernmental organisations, said the virtual curfews imposed on the 
villagers by the police were meant to intimidate the people because "the 
ruling party, especially from 2000, has depended mainly on rural areas 
for support, but the worsening economy is changing that; they are 
therefore not leaving anything to chance". Describing the country as 
being in a "de facto state of emergency", Ruhanya said the police were 
denying people the right of freedom of movement by flushing them out of 
areas of entertainment without legal justification.




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