Scores of people including children, women and elderly people were severely beaten, harassed and faced verbal and other forms of physical abuses by security forces during house raids and search operations conducted in Mbare, Chitungwiza, Mabvuku, Kuwadzana, Dombotombo, Marondera, and Dzivarasekwa in Harare. Similar incidents were reported in Pumula in Bulawayo and in Mkoba in Gwere, in attempt to arrest suspected protestors, and activists of opposition members. All of the acts amount to cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment by security forces. For instance, a 24-weeks pregnant woman in Kuwadzana, a high-density suburb west of Harare, was beaten at her home on 15 January when police officers came to look for men suspected of participating in the protest. The officers started beating her to reveal her husband’s whereabouts. She had a miscarriage as a result of this beating. Another woman in Chinhoyi who was 36-weeks pregnant was badly assaulted during a door-to-door raid on 15 January. She suffered severe bruises. In Harare, 14 juveniles ranging from 14-18 years old, who had been arrested between 14 and 15 January, told their lawyer they were tortured at the police station in Chitungwiza. The lawyer secured the acquittal of six of them who all complained that they had been tortured. According to an interview with lawyer Job Sikhala, the juveniles could not walk on the first day of their court appearance: “they were forced baton sticks down their throats and anals”. Sikhala said the Chitungwiza Magistrates’ court acknowledged the torture during the hearing on 31 January. Others, including a child, were beaten by security forces as a form of punishment for their real or perceived participation in protests and stay-away actions. A nine-year-old boy in Mabvuku was beaten in front of his parents by a police officer on 15 January because he had dreadlocks. According to reports provided to medical personnel by his parents in Harare on 15 January, the policeman who beat him told him “you are the people who cause trouble.52” Those injured were also not spared from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by security forces. Amnesty International has also documented cases where security forces mishandled and dragged people receiving critical medical assistance out of the treatment centre. For instance, on 16 January, dozens of policemen came and arrested 28 individuals who were receiving medical treatment at a “safe house” facility in Hatfield, Harare, for gunshot wounds and other injuries and forcibly took them to attend court. A man who was shot in the chest and had a drain to remove blood and air from his pleural cavity was forcibly removed from his bed and hauled to court with his drain attached. The bullet is still lodged in his body.53 Information gathered by Amnesty International also suggests that sexual violence could have been used to suppress protests by Zimbabwean government security forces. Amnesty International is aware of at least 15 cases of rape and other forms of sexual assault against women by police and military including that of a 15year-old girl from Harare on 15 January. Zimbabwe is yet to ratify the Convention Against Torture (CAT) which prohibits torture in all cases, but section 53 of the current constitution provides that “no person may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” There is evidently great disparity between the country’s obligations and what happened in the aftermath of the protest. Despite the compelling evidence and allegations of unlawful killings, excessive use of force, torture and other forms of ill-treatment by security forces, the government has not taken any genuine and comprehensive measure to investigate and hold suspected perpetrators to account. The President’s reaction came only on 28 January following a media report by Sky News, where he posted a tweet saying, “I was appalled by today’s @SkyNews report. That is not the Zimbabwean way. I have instructed that individuals behind this be arrested and encourage all those impacted to contact the authorities and file an official complaint.”54 But this has not translated into any genuine measure towards accountability. Instead authorities have resorted to threats against human rights defenders, activists, civil society organizations as well as opposition politicians and individuals considered to be dissidents or calling for justice.55 Interview with medical personnel 25 January 2019 Witness testimony from Doctor who was treating the patient 54 The video showed three army men hitting a man, forcing him to run, then stopping him for more beatings 55 Presidential spokesperson George Charamba warned that what happened during the protest was a foretaste of things to come. The Chairperson of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Rashid Mahiya, remains in hiding fearing for his life after he was labelled as one of the organisers of the protests 52 53 ‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS, CLOSED FOR DISSENT’ CRACKDOWN IN ZIMBABWE DURING THE NATIONAL STAY-AWAY, 14-16 JANUARY 2019 Amnesty International 13