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By Godfrey Olukya 15-9-2012
Police in Zimbabwe has in this week indiscriminately detained over 300 people and seriously beaten up hundreds of others randomly in a crackdown on gangs in the capital.
This has been revealed in a report released yesterday by human rights body, Amnesty International which condemned the acts saying they abuse human rights.
According to Amnesty international, the arrests which took place in the country’s capital, Harare, came after clashes between security forces and violent gangs of mini-bus touts .
Southern Africa director of Amnesty international, Noel Kututwa said,’The police has gone out of control beating people at random. That is unacceptable. The government should act immediately to bring the police under control.’
Kututwa said that they had interviewed eye witnesses who told them that police had beaten many innocent civilians on the streets as they sought to arrest touts of mini-buses who had earlier beaten up security officers.
‘According to our records, 308 people have been detained by police. We request that they are brought before a court immediately,” Kututwa said.
He demanded that innocent members of the public arrested during the police action be released immediately and unconditionally adding that the police’s attempt to restore law and order has instead turned into chaos.
Police sources said that the clashes were prompted by mini-bus touts who reportedly beat two soldiers into a comma. The touts’ misbehavior triggered off police action.
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