Women in Zimbabwe jailed naked

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, April 22, 2007

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Women arrested at a protest organized by a pro-democracy group were stripped of their clothes and jailed naked for hours, the group said Sunday.

Eighty-two members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise group were arrested in the city of Bulawayo at the protest Thursday against power outages. Police said it was an illegal political demonstration.

Of those, 18 were stripped and jailed “the whole day in a state of undress,” the group said Sunday.

“When two members of a support team attempted to bring food, they too were arrested,” it said.

The group said one 18-year-old supporter was beaten across the kidneys by police who later drove her into the bush, a common scare tactic, according to women’s group leader, Jenni Williams.

The teen, Clarah Makoni, was forced to crawl under an electric fence and run through scrubland to the nearest road, her clothes torn and covered in dirt and vomit. She was picked up by a passing motorist and treated for shock and vomiting spasms, said Williams.

Police in Bulawayo were not immediately available for comment.