believe that you are the guys from the MDC who are telling people not to participate.” They left me in a room for three hours. Then they put me in an open truck (it was raining) and drove me to Harare police station where I was interrogated again. I was accused of being MDC. They were saying “who are you to mobilize young people? Only political parties can mobilize young people.” I told them that I was a youth leader from a Catholic church. I was detained over night in Bulawayo at what looks like a police camp and then I was detained overnight in Harare Central Police Station. I was driven early to Harare, around 4am. They kept me without food until I managed to call my brother who brought me food. They wanted to charge me under POSA for holding a meeting likely to breach the peace and then they changed their minds.100 In Harare, a local human rights activist described his arrest in late January after a workshop in Mutare: Last week of January in Mutare, Manicaland, I was picked up and arrested. I was asked why I didn’t notify the police under POSA. I insisted that POSA doesn’t affect private meetings. But they said that this is around election time. So we have to know. They asked who is funding me. “Which government is funding you?” They were plainclothes police—those who questioned me, but I was arrested by uniformed police. But they released me without charge.101 In February 2005, police disrupted a number of peaceful protests and meetings by opposition and civil society activists in Bulawayo and Harare. For example, on February 16, police reportedly arrested and beat members of the National Constitutional Assembly who were marching to demand free and fair elections in Harare.102 On the same day police also disrupted an MDC internal briefing for its 120 candidates in Harare, and briefly detained the MDC Director of Elections Ian Makoni.103 In a statement written in the Daily Mirror newspaper, the MDC reported that three plain clothes policemen arrived and demanded to sit through the meeting. They later informed those 100 Human Rights Watch interview, Harare, February 8, 2005. 101 Human Rights Watch interview, Harare, February 7, 2005. 102 “Police crush protest in Harare,” ZimOnline February 17, 2005; “Protestors in Zimbabwe beaten up by police,” Mail and Guardian online, February 18, 2005. 103 “Police disrupt opposition party meeting in Harare,” The Daily Mirror, February 17, 2005. 23