TARGETING OF OPPOSITION MDC MEMBERS On 17 January, three MDC-Alliance Members of Parliament, Amos Chibaya, Lloyd Mukapiko and Livingstone Chiminya, were arrested in Gweru on charges of inciting public violence. They were denied bail when they appeared in the Gweru magistrates’ court on 17 January. Chibaya was eventually granted bail on 30 January, but was promptly rearrested and charged with subverting a constitutional government. He remains in custody. By 21 January, 12 other MDC Members of Parliament had been arrested and others said to be in hiding as they feared for their lives. Leader of the Opposition House in Parliament Thabitha Khumalo said the MDC was concerned with the “wanton and unwarranted arrests and persecution of MDC Alliance Members of Parliament by various State agents. To date, four of our legislators have been arrested on trumped-up charges and a number of them are being hunted and victimised for their MDC membership.”74 On 29 January, opposition MDC Member of Parliament Charlton Hwende made an urgent appeal to the Namibian police for protection, citing what his lawyers called credible fears of abduction to face treason charges. Hwende is in Namibia visiting family while Parliament is in recess. His lawyer Norman Tjombe wrote to the Inspector General of police that Hwende was reliably informed that members of the Zimbabwe Central Investigation Office (CIO) had travelled to Namibia to abduct and force him back to Zimbabwe.75 THREATS TO THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION The government issued a threat to the Zimbabwean Human Rights Commission following its report on the crackdown released a few days after the protests ended. The Minister of Justice, Legal and Constitutional Affairs, said the Commission’s report fell short of the standard for which it was created in the Constitution as it covered only the period “after the first two most anarchical days of the disturbances.”76 The persecution of human rights defenders and civil society activists is yet another strong indication of a well-orchestrated crackdown on human rights and attacks against civil society leaders who are perceived to be behind the national shutdown. Many other civil society leaders who had been singled out by the authorities remain in hiding and their whereabouts were not known at the time of writing. Letter of Thabitha Khumalo to Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, 23 January 2018 reported in the Daily News https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2019/01/23/mdc-petitions-parly-over-arrests 75 Letter Signed by Norman Tjombe on 29 January 2019 was availed to Amnesty International - 29 January 2019 76 Statement issued by the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services on 25 January and read on national television by Minister of Justice, Legal and Constitutional Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi 74 ‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS, CLOSED FOR DISSENT’ CRACKDOWN IN ZIMBABWE DURING THE NATIONAL STAY-AWAY, 14-16 JANUARY 2019 Amnesty International 17