Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe Bulawayo, the police were reported to have arrested MDC security staff video-ing them towing away a party vehicle and charged them with taking a video in a public place.1 There have been numerous reports of police refusals to accept complaints, particularly against members of the ruling party and ‘war veterans’ (eg following the disturbances in Epworth in August 2001).2 In Mount Darwin, it was reportedly alleged by one young man that ‘war veterans have taken over as policemen… The police are not doing anything. The war veterans are fed at the District Administrator’s office and paid every month’.3 Chivhu police were reported by a motorist stopped by an illegal roadblock (manned by Zanu-PF ‘youths – of advanced ages’) to have been parked ‘a few metres’ from it.4 Our databases have 361 reports in which police reactions were specifically mentioned. In 33 cases, the police reaction was unknown. In only six cases – 1,7% of the total - did the police refuse to accept (overlapping) complaints, some of which were extremely serious: one killing, one torture, one intimidation, two kidnappings, four assaults. Five of these victims belonged to the MDC and one lacked any political affiliation. Ten complainants (half of them belonging to the MDC) were assisted in their immediate difficulty: nine assaults were stopped, two kidnappees released, one electoral offence corrected. In these 10 cases, whatever police follow-up there may have been was not reported. Of the 49 violations of human rights in which no report was made to the police, the army was responsible for seven, the police themselves for five, the army and police together for another three. In another five cases, the police had watched the violation but only in one had they effected an arrest without a complaint being laid. Of these 20 cases, all but one (a death threat) involved assault, one of which additionally involved torture: 13 victims belonged to the MDC while seven claimed to belong to no political party. Within the 49 cases, there were: nine of arson, two of intimidation, two of torture, 31 assaults, five death threats, seven kidnappings and five offences relating to property. Of the 263 complaints laid, the police lost one. Another was resolved by their release of the vehicle which the police themselves had seized. In 186 cases they arrested no-one. What happened in 45 of the 76 cases in which they did arrest people, remained unknown. Of the remaining 31 cases, one prisoner escaped, apparently never to be re-arrested. Four were released. One policeman caught wearing an MDC T-shirt off-duty was victimised and left the force. Of the 25 against whom charges were actually laid, the result was unknown in 20 cases, including eight bailed and three remanded in custody. Two were fined, two were convicted (but the sentence unknown) and one was discharged, having been found not guilty. Overall, therefore, in these 361 known violations in which the role of the police was specifically mentioned, the law was reported to have been activated in any way in a maximum of 21% of them. There is no record of anyone having been jailed, except on remand, and only two known 1 The Standard 9.9.01. The Daily News 30.8.01. 3 Zimbabwe Independent 24.8.01. 4 The Daily News 24.8.01. 2 31