KELVIN TINASHE CHOTO, 22-YEAR-OLD FOOTBALL PLAYER This was the case for Kelvin Tinashe Choto, a 22-year-old football player from Chitungwiza, a high-density residential town about 30km from Harare, who was shot in the head and killed by security forces outside his home on Monday 14 January. He died on the spot and his body was taken to Makoni police station by angry residents. He was buried on 19 January and is survived by a wife Varaidzo Chiyanike and a sevenmonth-old daughter. According to his father, Kelvin was watching clashes between protestors about 30 metres from the Makoni Police station fence when a police officer shot him in the head. “I have been robbed,” his father said. “He was my only son and his future was bright. I have been robbed by the state.”37 Father of late Kelvin Tinashe Choto, 22-year-old, who was shot in the head by security forces Kelvin was a gifted football player and he was captain of first division Chitungwiza City Club. He was due to attend trials at a South African Club a few days after he was shot. Mr Choto knows the officer who killed his son and he is seeking justice to what happened to his son. Mr Choto believes Kelvin may have been targeted because he was wearing a red football jersey when he was shot and killed on 15 January.38 But much to his pain, there appeared to be a clear attempt to cover-up because when Mr Choto went to the Makoni police station on 15 January to file a report, the police officers told him that they had already received a report internally and a docket had been opened. They gave Mr Choto a docket number SDD02/19, commonly referred to as “Sudden Death Dockets.” Such dockets are not normally directed to the prosecutions department for trial but rather referred to magistrates, who will sit in their chambers and determine whether there should be an inquest hearing or not.39 Amnesty International has also confirmed another similar case of unlawful killing of a man who was fleeing protest action in Marondera, a town in Mashonaland East and about 72km from Harare. Solomon Nyaruwa was an informal trader who had gone into town to collect a debt when he was shot dead on 15 January by an unidentified police officer. According to several newspaper reports, including footage from the funeral, he was shot while fleeing with other protestors and taken to Dombotombo Police Station, where he was placed in a cell and left unattended.40 He was found dead in the police cell by his relatives the following day. On 21 January, a relative who spoke to a journalist on condition of anonymity at the funeral, said the family had been threatened and asked not to hold a funeral wake for the late Nyaruwa.41 In another brutal incident, Elvis Saidi from one of Harare’s high-density suburb of Mbare, was gunned down on 14 January by riot police outside Chishawasha Flats in Mbare.42 According to eye witnesses, Saidi was trying to help an old woman holding a baby who was suffocating from tear gas when he was shot. He was buried in Marondera on 20 January. He is survived by a wife and a child. Beyond the patterns of unlawful killings, Amnesty International has documented several cases of injuries of protestors and others as result of unlawful and excessive use of force by security forces. For instance, on 14 January, Patricia Kamuriwo was severely wounded after she was shot by a gun in her thigh near a police station in Epworth on her way from work. Various pictures and videos on social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube showed her being pushed to the hospital in a wheelbarrow by sympathisers. Amnesty International verified the authenticity of the images and confirmed her injury from witnesses.43 Amnesty International Interview with Tinashe’s father, Julius Choto 29 January 2019 Opposition MDC regalia is red Section 5 and 6 of the Inquest Act of Zimbabwe gives discretionary powers to a Magistrate to ascertain whether a hearing will take place or not 40 See story and video from South Africa’s TV Channel, ENCA here https://www.zimeye.net/2019/01/21/marondera-man-shot-by-police-diesin-cells/ 41 On https://www.zimeye.net/2019/01/21/marondera-man-shot-by-police-dies-in-cells/ 42 Emotions Charge Up as Army victims buried, covered by Bulawayo 24 News https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo154161.html 43 Amnesty International interview with a health worker whose identity has been withheld for security reasons 37 38 39 ‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS, CLOSED FOR DISSENT’ CRACKDOWN IN ZIMBABWE DURING THE NATIONAL STAY-AWAY, 14-16 JANUARY 2019 Amnesty International 10