Two women severely assaulted by police in last weekend's beating of opposition leaders in Harare, Zimbabwe, were prevented Saturday from traveling to South Africa for medical treatment.
Sekai Holland, 64, secretary for international affairs in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Grace Kwinjeh, her deputy, were badly injured during the two-hour torture session in which several others, including MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, suffered head wounds and multiple fractures.
The women were transported by ambulance from the Avenues Clinic to Harare International Airport, where an aircraft was ready to evacuate them to Johannesburg. However officers of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Office (CIO) reportedly stopped the ambulance on the tarmac and seized Kwinjeh's and Holland's passports.
They were told they would have to get a clearance certificate from the Department of Health before traveling and were initially instructed to go to Harare's central police station before being allowed to return to the Avenues Clinic where they remain effectively under arrest, guarded by police.
Holland suffered multiple fractures including three broken ribs, a broken arm and broken leg and has extensive bruising. She has undergone surgery to insert pins in her arm and leg, but her knee -which was also shattered - will probably need specialist surgery in South Africa.
A statement issued earlier this week by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said that "injuries sustained by Sekai Holland were worsened by denial of timely access to medical treatment which led to an infection of deep soft tissue in her left leg." Grace Kwinjeh has extensive bruising and damage to her right ear lobe is thought to require reconstructive surgery.
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"That the Zimbabwean government now resorts to arresting people in ambulances in clear need of specialist care, is an indication of the repressive lengths they're prepared to go," said Tawanda Mutasah, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. He said lawyers were trying to get a court order to allow the women to travel.
Another senior MDC figure, Arthur Mutambara, was also arrested Saturday at the airport while trying to travel to Johannesburg, according to Roy Bennet, exiled treasurer of the MDC, speaking in South Africa. Earlier in the day Mutambara had spoken at an event to affirm the unity of the MDC, after months of tension in the political party. Referring to last weekend's dispersal of a planned prayer meeting and subsequent arrest and beating of leaders from two rival factions, Mutambara said: "Sunday was the demonstration of commitment to working together; there is no better place to demonstrate unity than in the battlefield."
To loud applause, Mutambara, who leads the breakaway faction, declared: "We have our differences but we will manage them. Arthur Mutambara will not stand in an election against Morgan Tsvangirai; Morgan Tsvangirai will not stand against Arthur Mutambara. I hope, Robert Mugabe, you sick old man, you are listening."
Tsvangirai, who is still recovering from his injuries, was unable to attend the event but his secretary-general, Tendai Biti, sat next to Mr Mutambara and endorsed the statement.
