REDRESS therefore prepared a comprehensive Memorandum of Law for UNMIK, which included a synopsis of the present human rights crisis in Zimbabwe, with emphasis on the role of the ZRP and the impunity enjoyed by torturers within its ranks.24 Attention was drawn to the inescapable fact that as the police themselves are part of the repressive State-machinery, and as they and others are carrying out a deliberate unlawful policy to keep Zanu-PF in power, they will not investigate and prosecute themselves. An example given was the 1999 torture in custody of two journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Raymond Choto, where despite an order of the Supreme Court the police failed to carry out any investigation.25 UNMIK was also informed that where the victims are known members of the MDC (as in the instant case) there is no chance at all of torture allegations being investigated.26 Given the total domestic impunity that Dowa and others like him enjoy, it was made very clear that it was wholly unrealistic to expect that any effective investigation and/or any independent and impartial prosecution would take place in Zimbabwe. Unless he was dealt with outside of Zimbabwe, he would escape justice. REDRESS therefore turned to the legal issues arising from Dowa’s presence in Kosovo. Kosovo and the United Nations Convention against Torture Before examining the provisions of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), it was necessary to confirm the status of CAT in Kosovo, given the territory’s unique position and the upheavals in the Balkans since 1990. Kosovo was part of Serbia when the latter entity joined with others in a federal State, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.27 Despite a bid for complete independence Kosovo remains part of Serbia, albeit a province under direct UN control. What remained of the former Yugoslavia, namely Serbia and Montenegro, ratified CAT in 2001.28 As Kosovo was and is still part of Serbia, CAT would apply to it too. Even before this ratification, and by resolution of UNMIK in 1999, CAT was also specifically 24 The full text of the Memorandum is on the REDRESS Trust website http://www.redress.org. Chavunduka & Anor v Commissioner of Police & Anor 2000 (1) ZLR 418 (S). The former Attorney-General Patrick Chinamasa (now Minister of Justice) had reneged on an undertaking to order the Commissioner of Police Augustine Chihuri to investigate. Both Chinamasa and Chihuri are an integral part of the ruling-party machine involved in keeping Mugabe and themselves in power at all costs, and they and others will do nothing to bring perpetrators to justice. See also Enforcing the rule of law in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Special Report 3, September 2001, which records that in four out of every five cases where complaints have been lodged with the police specifically about unlawful police activities including torture, the authorities do nothing at all. That was in 2001, and matters are far worse now. 26 For example, in 2000 two MDC members (Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika) were brutally murdered in the presence of the police by two members of the CIO (Mwale and Zimunya). Despite a High Court judge calling on the authorities to investigate the named perpetrators, nothing has been done, and Mwale continues to commit human rights abuses in the east of the country. This case is notorious in Zimbabwe and has been cited in numerous national and international reports, for example, Zimbabwe; the Toll of Impunity, Amnesty International (supra), pages 42-44. The High Court case is Buhera North Election Petition HH 67/2001 HC 8139/2000 (cyclostyled judgement). 27 After World War II. The State ratified CAT on 10 September 1991. 28 On 12 March 2001. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia itself officially ended in 2003 with the formation of what is now called the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. 25 6