David Chimhini, the MDC-T MP for Mutasa North, has said politically motivated violence and partisan policing are getting worse in his constituency. 15 MDC supporters, including a heavily pregnant woman, are in police custody for singing while marching past a ZANU PF gathering.

10 of the people are in their second week in Mutare remand prison. They are expected to be brought to court on March 24th. The MP said the MDC supporters have yet to be charged, despite being held in police custody for two weeks. The other five, including the pregnant woman, were arrested on Monday. Chimhini said they are being held under bad conditions at Ruda police station, which he said was filthy and the inmates are chronically underfed.

“I discovered that they were arrested after marching through a place where ZANU PF people were supposed to be having a meeting. But before that the MDC people had been allocated a place to meet by the local headman, and it was following that approval that the ZANU PF people decided to go to the same venue. In actual fact it was just a provocation,” said the Mutasa North legislator.

 

Most Zimbabwean women who suffered  political violence remain traumatised for the rest of their lives because of lack of support from the organisations that usually put them at the forefront. This emerged on Tuesday, March 23, at the launch of a new report on human rights violations experienced by female members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The report, titled “Fighting for a New Constitution”, was prepared by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU). One of the survivors, Mary Pamire, who says she was abducted and raped by ten soldiers in 2003, broke down as she narrated how she was thrown into the forefront of demonstrations, only for those who led the protests to dump her after she had already been abused. “I was abducted by a group of soldiers in 2003, they took me to a secluded place and took turns to rape me,” said a tearful Pamire. “It was not an easy thing. I counted up to ten the number of times they raped me. After that I lost track of what was happening.”

 

The Zimbabwean Cabinet has approved proposals by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to amend the Public Order and Security Act and replace the much-maligned Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act with a freedom of information law. Another piece of legislation is planned to regulate the conduct of journalists, sources said. Programs Manager Pedzisai Ruhanya of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition told reporter Ntungamili Nkomo that such changes would be welcome, but warned they may not be implemented. Elsewhere, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said the country must start preparing now for elections in 2011 if they are to be free and fair. The group said elections are in the cards for next year in light of recent statements by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

 

Pressure on Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono to resign mounted on Tuesday following a recommendation from the International Monetary Fund that the country strengthen central bank governance and sniping from former allies in ZANU-PF over Gono's criticism of the party's indigenization initiative. Upon concluding so-called Article IV Consultations with the Harare government this week, the IMF called for improved central bank governance, warning that risk is on the rise in Zimbabwe's financial system. The IMF recommended the establishment of an RBZ governing board and downsizing of bank operations and staff. Political sources said Gono, who has presided over the collapse of his institution to the point where its assets are being auctioned off to satisfy creditors, has come under mounting pressure from some in ZANU-PF to step down after blasting Harare's indigenization and black empowerment program as a form of cronyism.