HARARE – Riot police stormed a Bulawayo hotel on Friday as a commission hearing evidence on the August 1 slaughter of six civilians by soldiers in Harare was forced to temporarily halt proceedings.

The commission, chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, at one point left a conference room at the Rainbow hotel under police escort as fists were exchanged.

Police arrested several people for heckling witnesses and disrupting proceedings.

In farcical scenes, the hearing was allowed to drift into an inquest into the Gukurahundi genocide decades earlier – raising questions whether it was a good decision to take the hearings out of Harare, the scene of the crime.

Arrests … Police with one of the men arrested in chaotic scenes at the Motlanthe Commission hearings

The Zimbabwe NGO Human Rights Forum said four people had been arrested in the skirmishes.

Later on Friday, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said it was  providing emergency legal support to Wisdom Mkhwananzi, Mayor Ncube, Welcome Moyo and Marshal Sibanda.

Mkhwananzi had been “assaulted” by police, the lawyers said.  He was taken to hospital at the request of the lawyers, where he was treated under police guard.