Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on Organised Violence and Torture in 1999 Later in the year, again in Bulawayo, police shot and killed Misheck Beremauro. According to the Daily News [2 July 1999], eye witnesses said that Beremauro was shot inside a car, handcuffed and left lying in a pool of blood by the side of the road. He later died at the Bulawayo United Hospital. The cause of death was severe bleeding after bullets shattered his right femur and cut open his blood vessels. The police said he was a suspected car thief trying to run away from arrest. However, it appears that there was no merit in the suspicion that Beremauro had stolen the motor vehicle as the owner confirmed that he had given it to Beremauro to look for buyers. There were no investigations into the shooting as the police maintained their position that they had merely killed a thief. In another case, Nelly Chirangwi, a mother of five who was on her way to work, was shot and killed at a roadblock by a policeman. The police said that an officer opened fire at a car which suddenly made an about turn at the roadblock. It was reported in the Daily News [7th April 1999] that the officer missed his target and the bullet ricocheted off the tarmac and hit Chirangwi who was a passenger in a commuter omnibus. The bullet hit her at the back and came out through the chest. Questions were raised whether the version given by the police is correct since it seems improbable that after hitting the tarmac the bullet would ricochet horizontally to hit someone at the back and come out through the chest. Two inquests into deaths during the food riots were reported. A Mutare magistrate ruled that charges be preferred against a police officer who shot and killed Clever Gunda after the court heard that Gunda died of gunshot wounds sustained after police opened fire to disperse a crowd. One of the shots ricocheted off the ground and hit Gunda between his nose and left eye. The cause of death, according to medical evidence, was brain damage caused by a gunshot. Police officers who testified during the inquest indicated that warning shots should not have been fired into the ground but in the air in a safe direction before shooting to disable or kill as a last resort. In the other inquest, a magistrate in Gweru heard that Kudzai Ndlovu died as a result of bleeding of the lower part of the lungs caused by a gunshot. The magistrate recommended that law enforcement agencies be trained to deal with riots and that further investigations be held, possibly by independent investigators, to establish the circumstances leading to the death. 4. Torture and inhuman treatment Police and other law enforcement agencies frequently use torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment to extract confessions and other information that they require. The majority of torture and ill-treatment cases reported are on people accused of routine criminal offences. It appears that those who are not represented by a lawyer are at a higher risk of being tortured or treated in an inhuman and degrading manner. Not all cases reported were seen by the Human Rights Legal Unit and those reported immediately below were identified from press reports. There were several reports of beatings. The Zimbabwe Independent [22nd October 1999] carried the story of Fortune Sithole who sustained permanent head injuries after police in Sunningdale severely assaulted him. He had been arrested after a dispute with his girlfriend. He was handcuffed and beaten throughout the night with chains, truncheons, fists and planks. He was also kicked. The doctor’s report confirmed multiple blows. A criminal report against the assailants was made and they were identified. A policeman in Birchenough Bridge was reported in the Eastern Star [20th August 1999] to have grabbed a woman, felled her to the ground and started caressing her while sitting on her stomach. He stripped her of her petticoat and demanded to have sexual intercourse with her. The woman continued to fight and he handcuffed her and detained her for the night. The woman filed a complaint and the policeman was charged with indecent assault. He was convicted and sentenced to five months imprisonment with labour. In Mutare’s Dangamvura suburb Crispen Masengere died after police details, who wanted to question him in connection with a suspected theft, set dogs in his two roomed house. According to the Eastern Star [26th March 1999], a passerby who witnessed the police unleashing the dogs said loud cries were heard -7-