VIII. Government Response to the Abuses The government of Zimbabwe’s response to the violence taking place around the country has been contradictory and grossly duplicitous. While behind the scenes senior officials are organizing the violence, publicly the government has both tried to downplay and distance itself from it. On the one hand, the government has claimed that reports of violence have been exaggerated by the western media, that the MDC is the main perpetrator and that government officials and security forces have no responsibility for it. On the other hand, the authorities have made statements denouncing the abuses and have called for “multi-party” committees to look into ways of addressing the violence.112 The government and the state security forces and other state agents are fully responsible for the violence. The authorities have failed to ensure that the police deal impartially with the perpetrators of violence regardless of their affiliation. By allowing the main perpetrators of these abuses to act with impunity the government of Zimbabwe bears full responsibility for the serious crimes committed in its name. Failure of the Police to Prevent Violence While this report has described a number of incidents when police officers stepped in to rescue victims or to break up beatings, in most cases, police have failed to take action when ZANU-PF and its allies have assaulted alleged MDC supporters. Victims have consistently complained of the reluctance of law enforcement officers to deal with the violence. In several cases documented by Human Rights Watch where victims made reports of assault and other human rights abuses to the police, the standard response from the police was to note the incident and take no further action. Almost invariably no arrests were made by the police in cases of political violence. 112 “ZEC to establish multi-party liaison committees,” Xinhua news agency, May 18, 2008, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/19/content_8203117.htm (accessed May, 28, 2008). “Bullets for Each of You” 54