Time for accountability 19 7 The Zimbabwe Republic Police The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is the main institution responsible for serious human rights violations in Zimbabwe. Throughout 2007 Amnesty International investigated allegations of human rights violations by the ZRP in order to establish patterns of violations and to identify the units responsible. Interviews with a wide range of victims exposed two specific police units in the ZRP as primarily responsible for the suppression of the rights to peaceful assembly and association, as well as torture and other ill-treatment of human rights defenders, political activists and other government critics. Police officers who have committed human rights violations have not been held to account and the victims have received no redress. In 2007 Amnesty International documented several cases where police arbitrary arrested, unlawful detained and tortured human rights defenders and political activists. Police have used excessive force to break up peaceful protests, often inflicting serious injuries on victims. Detained human rights defenders and political activists have frequently and repeatedly been denied access to lawyers, family, food and medical attention. The police have applied the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) selectively to curtail the rights to peaceful assembly and association of any organization or individual suspected of being an opponent of ZANU-PF.28 The law has been used not for the legitimate prosecution of criminal offences, but to persecute human rights defenders and political activists and to discourage them from exercising their rights to freedom of association and expression.29 Law and Order section The Law and Order section of the Criminal Investigations Department is responsible for the majority of human rights violations committed by police officers against human rights defenders and political activists. Alleged violations by the unit include arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and denial of detainees’ access to lawyers, food and medical care while in police custody. Law and Order section officers have harassed and intimidated detainees’ lawyers, and they have also refused to accept or comply with court orders to release detainees or bring suspects before the courts. Many of the people arrested by police on suspicion of offences under the POSA or other political matters are detained and interrogated by the Law and Order section. This is a function that the section inherited from its predecessor, the Rhodesian Special Branch, which was notorious for torturing and ill-treating political detainees during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. There are distinct similarities between the brutal way in which the Special Branch operated in Rhodesia, and the manner in Amnesty International AI Index: AFR 46/028/2008