MEDIA REPORT MASS ACTION IN RETROSPECT; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001179 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS AND AF/S RAYNOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT MASS ACTION IN RETROSPECT; HARARE ¶1. Two journalists working for the independent short-wave radio station Voice of the People (VOP) were detained and beaten by ZANU-PF youths and war veterans at the beginning (June 2) of the week-long mass protests organized by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The assailants confiscated the journalists' mobile phones and minidisk recorders. Shorai Katiwa and Martin Chimenya were attacked at the University of Zimbabwe while covering a demonstration by students who intended to march to downtown Harare. According to John Masuku, the Coordinator of VOP who spoke to the MISA-Zimbabwe (Media Institute of Southern Africa),the journalists were taken to Borrowdale Police Station for interrogation. From Borrowdale they were taken to the ZANU-PF Headquarters in the city center where they were further interrogated and beaten. ¶2. Eight men wearing police uniforms and driving four police cars raided the home of Edwina Spicer, a documentary film producer, at midnight on June 6. Without producing a search warrant, the unidentified intruders confiscated video cameras, recording equipment, a fax machine and Z$50,000. Mrs. Spicer is currently away on holiday in England, but her gardener, maid and security guard were all beaten during the raid. The break-in at the Spicer residence has come under fire from MISA, who said in a June 7 statement that "the manner in which this search was carried out clearly spells out the danger media workers are under" in Zimbabwe. SULLIVAN