I. Summary We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can’t have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force. —President Robert Mugabe, addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on the arrest, torture and mistreatment of 15 trade union activists in Zimbabwe, September 23, 2006 Violent repression of civil society activists by state authorities in Zimbabwe continues to escalate. Over the past year the government has reacted to a spate of nationwide protests against its policies on social, economic, and human rights conditions in the country by intensifying its efforts to intimidate, silence, and punish those who expose abuses and exercise their basic rights. In the beginning of Zimbabwe’s political crisis, the main perpetrators of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters and civil society activists were war veterans, youth militia, and supporters of the ruling party. In the past three years human rights violations against opposition supporters and civil society activists have increasingly been carried out by uniformed army and police personnel and state security agents. The government has taken no clear action to halt the rising incidence of torture and ill-treatment of activists while in the custody of police or the intelligence services. Recent statements by President Mugabe appear to condone acts of torture and other serious human rights violations. This report highlights the repressive tactics that the government has used in the past year to suppress the increasing political and economic discontent among the population. The police have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of civil society activists during routine meetings or peaceful demonstrations, often with excessive force, and in some cases subjected those in custody to severe beatings that amounted to torture, and other mistreatment. 1 Human rights watch November 2006