Augustie Chihuri, Zimbabwe’s police commissioner, has banned public demonstrations and protests during this summer’s World Cup, taking place in neighbouring South Africa. Reports indicate that a decision to curtail all public protests “from June 1 until further notice” has already been circulated to senior officers, and will be formally announced later in May.
A court has fined seven activists for participating in a gay pride march. Riot police forcibly detained activists on the Slavic Gay Parade in the capital Minsk on Saturday. About 230 people gathered for the annual event, which is held in a different country ever year to mark International Day Against Homophobia. Local officials banned the march on the grounds that it would pass too close to underground pedestrian crossings and metro stations. In a separate incident on Monday, activists were arrested protesting against the detention of political prisoners Mikalai Autukhovich and Uladzimir Asipenka. On Friday, a court fined Maksim Vinyarski of the European Belarus movement for participating in a protest held in March against the prisoners’ detention.
The funeral of an anti-government activist who died in police custody has been postponed following the intervention of Swaziland’s security forces. Sipho Jele, who was found hanged in his jail cell on May 4, was a member of the proscribed People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), he was originally arrested for wearing a t-shirt with the group’s logo. Jele’s funeral vigil was broken up by police officers, who removed a PUDEMO flag from Jele’s coffin, ordered the removal of banners supporting the organisation, and destroyed photographs of the deceased, before surrounding the coffin and refusing to leave. Jele’s family was forced to postpone the burial.
A Japanese cameraman for Reuters, Hiro Muramoto, was fatally shot in the chest whilst covering protests in Bangkok on 10 April. It is not apparent which side was responsible for the shooting, as Thai police used rubber bullets, tear gas and fired live ammunition into the air, whilst red shirt protesters were also accused of firing live rounds and grenades. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have issued a statement calling for an independent investigation of Muramoto’s death.