Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on Organised Violence and Torture in 1999 to 28 Commissioners resigning after making a public statement. The draft was accepted “by acclamation” after a highly acrimonious meeting and presented to the President. The draft was widely criticised by many organisations including Amnesty International. The NCA continued its own parallel process and by the end of the year the country was headed for a referendum in early 2000. 2.5 Attacks on the Rule of Law The most serious attacks on the rule of law came in the context of the journalists’ case. As human rights lawyer Tendai Biti pointed out in a very hard-hitting article these attacks are a continuation of sustained attacks since Independence in 19808. However the journalists’ case raised some of the most serious problems to date. Firstly there was the matter of the Zimbabwe National Army acting ultra vires in a civilian matter which was illegal and unconstitutional. Secondly the Zimbabwe Republic Police failed to exercise their authority in protecting their own suspects against unlawful arrest by the army. Thirdly there was the evasion by state officials of court orders which was clearly the context in which the judiciary wrote to the President requesting that he unequivocally state his commitment to the rule of law. Fourthly there was the failure by the Attorney-General to take the appropriate action to uphold the law and take action against the perpetrators. The statement by the President in his State of the Nation Address in February that the judges in question should resign precipitated a crisis which remained unresolved by the end of the year. Against this deteriorating socio-economic background the existence of gross human rights violations must be taken very seriously. Next we report upon the gross human rights violations reported in 1999 including those seen by the Human Rights Forum. 3. Extra-judicial Killings The use of excessive force by the police which is not commensurate with the danger of the situation facing them is a cause for concern. During the year there were reports of people who were shot and killed by the police and in some instances these can be attributed to the negligent use of firearms. In other cases, however, the police opened fire to kill people suspected of being criminals. This, it can be argued, amounts to extra-judicial execution, which clearly runs counter to the provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which guarantees the right to life. The Zimbabwe Standard [7th March 1999] reported two incidents which suggest the use of firearms by the police to summarily execute people suspected of involvement in criminal activities. In the first incident a student teacher was shot in the leg during an off campus demonstration. In the second, police shot and killed a 20-year-old man named Van Niekerk near Bulawayo. It was alleged that the Traffic Police had apprehended Van Niekerk whilst driving with his friend in Gweru but fled after discovering that Van Niekerk had a pistol. They later set up a roadblock near Bulawayo. Van Niekerk and his friend tried to drive through the roadblock whereupon the police opened fire. Two shots were aimed at the driver’s door, hitting Van Niekerk in the shoulder and the heart. A relative of the deceased disputed the claim that the deceased and his friend were trying to escape from the police, saying that the two had previously arranged to drive to Bulawayo. The police expressed the view that the killing of Van Niekerk was justifiable. As a result no investigation into the shooting was carried out. 8 See Biti T (1999), “Judiciary bashing: a predatory state and the rule of law in Zimbabawe” Zimbabwe Human Rights Bulletin 1 97-107. -6-