Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations have again called upon the Harare unity government to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of violence during constitutional revision public outreach meetings.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition issued a strongly worded statement on Thursday condemning the wave of violence that has marred many outreach meetings since the process began in June and culminated with attacks on members of the public last weekend during meetings in Harare and Bulawayo, the second-largest city.
The Crisis Coalition is an umbrella group representing many non-governmental organizations.
The group also denounced attempts by militants of the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe, implicated in the attacks on outreach venues in the capital and elsewhere, to exclude white Zimbabweans from the process.
Crisis Coalition spokesman Sidney Chisi said his organization is calling on the Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate police who neglected their duty in standing by as outreach participants were beaten up or intimidated to prevent them from expressing their opinions, particularly during the past weekend in Harare.
Elsewhere, a constitutional outreach meeting organized for disabled people in Bulawayo turned into a ZANU-PF political meeting when able-bodied party activists were bused to the venue on Tuesday to make the case for the party’s position on the new constitution. Correspondent Mzenzi Tshabangu reported on the incident.
