be most plausible for victims of state sponsored human rights violations. Questions around reparations
and compensation are touched on in the report suffice to say that the issues remain vexing and
contentious at the national level. Questions remain on who is supposed to bear the cost of such
reparations. When the state compensates, is it not just the citizens compensating themselves? Why is it
that individual state security agents and their superiors are not held individually accountable for
atrocities committed in Zimbabwe? In a free falling and unstable economy like Zimbabwe's what
currency should be used and who determines what currency or inflation rates to be used to compensate
victims from yesteryear violent epochs. These questions are not easy and require more discussion. This
report sets the tone for those discussions.
The report notes that the current judicial system and operating environment in Zimbabwe leaves a lot to
be desired. The domestic efforts to set up government and constitutional bodies such as the now defunct
Organ on National Healing as well as the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission all seem to be
overwhelmed by the state of impunity Zimbabwe finds itself in. More could be done. The bodies
mandated to serve justice, investigate past human rights violations and advise the government seem
week, are at their tethers and seemingly do not know exactly where to start from or where to go. The
recommendations section in the report deals with that dilemma and recommends solutions to the police,
the Ministry of Home Affairs, the NPRC, the government as a whole and what civil society can do to
enhance its work on curbing impunity and redressing the scourge of the same phenomenon in
Zimbabwe.
Besides bringing to the fore the questionable and unlawful actions of state security agents in Zimbabwe,
this report serves another purpose. It questions our conscience as a people on what our values are
towards each other and as a nation. The same police officer who tortures another citizen has to go and
face the same relatives at hospital or at a funeral. The same government that refuses to pay
compensation to victims still collects taxes from the same people and plunders the money through
corruption and still pleads incapacity to pay. The same security sector that is supposed to uphold the
laws of the nation seem to operate oblivious of the laws of Zimbabwe and even plead ignorance. Yet,
one of the fundamentals of law is that ignorance of the law especially from law enforcement officers
cannot be a legal defence. How is that possible and how can it be allowed? Something has got to give
and this report argues that the legacy of impunity has to be broken forthwith in Zimbabwe.
Anti-Impunity Report
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