Her name is Grace Kwinjeh. Ms Kwinjeh was arrested and brutally beaten en route to a prayer meeting organized by the Christian Alliance in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe on March 11th. It was her intention to pray for peace. "We were arrested and kept in solitary confinement. We were not prepared for the brutality that was unleashed on us that morning", Ms. Kwinjeh told journalists in a briefing held at the United Nations Correspondents Association.
Ms Kwinjeh was subjected to four hours of random beatings, sustaining internal head injuries and soft tissue injuries, including her ear which was nearly torn off during the beatings. She and her colleagues, some of whom she described as "lying there half dead", were made to lie like animals on top of each other in a lorry. "The president of the opposition party, the chairman of the National Assembly and the President of the MTC, I thought were dead. We laid there for several hours", she said.
As it turned out, four women and approximately twenty men had been arrested and separated that day. Ms Kwinjeh was placed in a cell with two other girls and it was around 3am that she recalled hearing cars pulling into the compound. She was asked to come out by army officials who proceeded to torture and interrogate her about regime change and what she was trying to do on the morning of March 11th. She replied that she was in a prayer meeting and that they were praying for peace.
Due to Ms. Kwinjeh's high profile status as the Deputy Secretary for International Relations for the Movement for Democratic Change, the Zimbabwean opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangarai, she was able to get a four to five week reprieve to go to South Africa for medical attention. It was in South Africa that she was able to begin recovering and it was from South Africa she would be flown to United Nations Headquarters in New York to speak of the horror in Zimbabwe. "I was one of the two lucky ones to get out - After what I went through, I thank God that I'm able to be out here."
"Behind Grace are people who cannot be here to speak of their suffering, people not as prominent as Grace", Isabella Matambanadzo commented. Ms Matambanadzo is the Zimbabwe Programme Manager for the Open Society Initiative in Southern Africa. Ms. Matambanadzo said they are concerned as Zimbabwe citizens but also as regional human rights workers. Progressive comments from countries like Botswana and Tanzania show Zimbabweans that there is support for them but civil society organizations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have stated that now is the time to act and that the future of Zimbabwe is at stake.
In the SADC's open letter, it is noted that for almost a decade the people of Zimbabwe have suffered under the unjust regime of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party. Freedom of expression and assembly have been severely curtailed; virtually all independent media outlets have been shut down and thousands of people have been dispossessed by an increasingly desperate party and its ruler. Using non-violent means and all legitimate structures at their disposal, such as courts, their parliament and the media, the people of Zimbabwe feel they have made it clear to the world their aspirations to live in a democratic state - with little or no effect.
In response to questions about the potential response of the international community, Ms Matambanadzo said their key supporters are the U.S. and the U.K., however, they have been trying to meet with and drum up support from African countries like Senegal and Ghana - Ghana being, to date, the most outspoken about the crisis in Zimbabwe. Ms Matambanadzo also holds the view that the United Nations has a responsibility to help. "The abductions and torturing must stop now. This is why we are here today", she added.
With Grace Kwinjeh's reprieve soon to expire in one week and after telling her story of repression and brutality at the hands of army officials and riot police at the United Nations, there is a very strong possibility she will not be allowed back into the country and there is also the chance she will suffer retribution if she does get back in, she said. Six hundred activists in the Democratic Movement for Change have been adducted since the March 11th prayer meeting in Zimbabwe.
Elisa Burchett
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Ms Kwinjeh was subjected to four hours of random beatings, sustaining internal head injuries and soft tissue injuries, including her ear which was nearly torn off during the beatings. She and her colleagues, some of whom she described as "lying there half dead", were made to lie like animals on top of each other in a lorry. "The president of the opposition party, the chairman of the National Assembly and the President of the MTC, I thought were dead. We laid there for several hours", she said.
As it turned out, four women and approximately twenty men had been arrested and separated that day. Ms Kwinjeh was placed in a cell with two other girls and it was around 3am that she recalled hearing cars pulling into the compound. She was asked to come out by army officials who proceeded to torture and interrogate her about regime change and what she was trying to do on the morning of March 11th. She replied that she was in a prayer meeting and that they were praying for peace.
Due to Ms. Kwinjeh's high profile status as the Deputy Secretary for International Relations for the Movement for Democratic Change, the Zimbabwean opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangarai, she was able to get a four to five week reprieve to go to South Africa for medical attention. It was in South Africa that she was able to begin recovering and it was from South Africa she would be flown to United Nations Headquarters in New York to speak of the horror in Zimbabwe. "I was one of the two lucky ones to get out - After what I went through, I thank God that I'm able to be out here."
"Behind Grace are people who cannot be here to speak of their suffering, people not as prominent as Grace", Isabella Matambanadzo commented. Ms Matambanadzo is the Zimbabwe Programme Manager for the Open Society Initiative in Southern Africa. Ms. Matambanadzo said they are concerned as Zimbabwe citizens but also as regional human rights workers. Progressive comments from countries like Botswana and Tanzania show Zimbabweans that there is support for them but civil society organizations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have stated that now is the time to act and that the future of Zimbabwe is at stake.
In the SADC's open letter, it is noted that for almost a decade the people of Zimbabwe have suffered under the unjust regime of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party. Freedom of expression and assembly have been severely curtailed; virtually all independent media outlets have been shut down and thousands of people have been dispossessed by an increasingly desperate party and its ruler. Using non-violent means and all legitimate structures at their disposal, such as courts, their parliament and the media, the people of Zimbabwe feel they have made it clear to the world their aspirations to live in a democratic state - with little or no effect.
In response to questions about the potential response of the international community, Ms Matambanadzo said their key supporters are the U.S. and the U.K., however, they have been trying to meet with and drum up support from African countries like Senegal and Ghana - Ghana being, to date, the most outspoken about the crisis in Zimbabwe. Ms Matambanadzo also holds the view that the United Nations has a responsibility to help. "The abductions and torturing must stop now. This is why we are here today", she added.
With Grace Kwinjeh's reprieve soon to expire in one week and after telling her story of repression and brutality at the hands of army officials and riot police at the United Nations, there is a very strong possibility she will not be allowed back into the country and there is also the chance she will suffer retribution if she does get back in, she said. Six hundred activists in the Democratic Movement for Change have been adducted since the March 11th prayer meeting in Zimbabwe.
Elisa Burchett
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report