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Ford School MPP Tells about Being Detained by Zimbabwe Government during Recent Elections  

	Dileepan Sivapathasundaram is a 2004 graduate Master of Public Policy program at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. In 2008 he was detained by government authorities and police in Zimbabwe while working on issues relating to democratic elections in that country. This is his story.

Zimbabwe recently held elections on Saturday march 29 which were closely watched throughout the world where many Zimbabweans hoped and believed there would be a change in leadership given the rapid deterioration in the political, economic and social situation in the country over the past ten or so years. while there have always been suspicions of wide-scale fraud related to past elections no one has ever been able to substantiate these claims.

Through our assistance to domestic civic groups, local citizens were able to provide projections on the presidential election two days after the close of polls. these independent and non-partisan projections were soon carried by all the major news outlets in the country, region and internationally and for the first time provided Zimbabweans with the information showing that president robert Mugabe had indeed not won.

Some of you may know that the government has still not announced results more than two weeks after election day but it is certain that the regime was caught by surprise in more ways than one.

This is the political background to the personal experience of the last two weeks. on Thursday march 3 I went to Harare international airport planning to board a flight back to Johannesburg. I was detained at the airport by security and intelligence officers and taken to their downtown headquarters. an interrogation then continued for more than 22 hours by different teams trying to build a story around a western conspiracy to rig the elections in favor of the opposition. the experience was nothing short of something I had only read about in books or seen in movies what with sleep and food/water deprivation as well as repetitive questioning and verbal harassment.

That said at no time was I ever physically harmed.

Although I was assured at numerous points during the interrogation that I would be released this never happened. following the intense questioning by security and intelligence, I was taken to police headquarters where I was made to wait for another five hours while the criminal investigation division determined why I had been detained at the airport. it was at this time that I saw the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist from the new York times Barry bearak as well as another British journalist who had both been arrested during police raids the previous day. it was also the first time I saw a lawyer and a representative from the U.S. embassy.

I was released on my recognizance that night but forced to report back the following morning to determine whether any charges were to be leveled against me. the next day was a waiting game for more than 12 hours where no one knew what was going to happen from one minute to the next. this process continued for the next four days as I was assured that the 'information' that I had provided was checked and corroborated.

On the fifth day, I was released and my passport returned to me with no explanation except a remark from the chief superintendent that charges could have brought. without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that I had been caught up in the fluid politics of the country that were playing out in the aftermath of the elections.

See website links below for further information - the first two are features I did upon returning to the states while the rest were stories carried by the press during the ordeal in Zimbabwe.

http://www.theworld.org/audio/0416082.mp3 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/132444 

http://www.accessdemocracy.org/library/2296_zi_release_StaffHeld_en_041008.pdf 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/world/africa/04zimbabwe.html