via 25 Chingwizi flood victims granted bail | The Zimbabwean 8 August 2014
Twenty five of the 29 Chingwizi occupants who were recently arrested by the police following violent skirmishes at the transit camp were on Friday granted bail by a Chiredzi court.
They were part of the estimated 300 angry villagers who were rounded up in a combined army and police dragnet last Saturday and Sunday for allegedly torching police trucks.
The villagers, who were moved to the holding camp in February after being displaced from their homes following the over-flooding of the nearby Tokwe-Mukosi Dam in Masvingo, were protesting a decision to forcefully move them to government designated plots.
The flood victims say the plots are too small for their families and want bigger land that government initially promised them, together with resettlement compensation.
The release of the 25 comes amid reports that government has dispatched trucks to eject the villagers from Chingwizi.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, in a statement on Friday, expressed concern that the other four were still being detained.
“The Forum is concerned with the continued detention of four villagers who were denied bail and will continue monitoring developments in the camp. We also hope that the
government will find a lasting solution to the Chingwizi crisis,” said the forum.
COMMENTS
I truly feel for these poor people , first flooded and then all this inhumanity from the very people who are supposed to protect them
The government we deserve