TORTURE IN ZIMBABWE, PAST AND PRESENT Karidza, whose trial for spying began on 27 January 2005, was not brought to court sooner as there were reports that he had been so badly tortured that the CIO did not want him seen in public until he had somewhat recovered. More than a month after his arrest sources said he was still unable to walk or talk properly, his legs were badly swollen and he was unable to eat. It appears that the case has developed into a ‘trial within a trial’ with the accused objecting to the admissibility of certain evidence proffered against him. 143 On 8 February 2005 the remaining three men were jailed after a secret trial in which they tried to withdraw guilty pleas made earlier. Their allegations that confessions had been made under duress were rejected. Dzvairo was sentenced to six years, while Marchi and Matambanadzo got five years each. In summary, and particularly since losing the Constitutional Referendum at the beginning of 2000,144 Zanu-PF has been at the forefront on an ever-worsening human rights situation in Zimbabwe and up to the time of this report there is no sign of a either a decline in human rights violations or any attempt being made by the State to investigate and prosecute offenders. 145 On the contrary, the police 146 are now as much to blame for the systematic use of torture as other Zanu-PF agencies such as the CIO, 147 army, youth militias, war veterans and party groups, and there is no realistic likelihood of the perpetrators investigating and prosecuting themselves. 143 News24.com 3 May 2005, http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1698840,00.html 144 Following its near defeat in the June 2000 general Parliamentary election and the MDC’s launch of 37 election petitions, the Government turned its attention to physically attacking witnesses in the petition cases. Witnesses are known to have been attacked in the constituencies of Chiredzi, Buhera North, Hurungwe (Karoi), Chinoyi, Kariba, Chikomba, Makoni and Mount Darwin: see Politically Motivated Violence in Zimbabwe 2000-2001, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Harare, August 2001, pp.37-41. At the same time it extended and intensified its violent grip over the country in preparation for the Presidential election. Throughout 2001 and in the build-up to the Presidential poll in March 2002 the pattern continued, as it has for a further year since the fraudulent re-election of Mugabe. More recently the Government has taken to manipulating food supplies, using drought relief resources to starve people into supporting it: see Zimbabwe: Voting for Food: Rural and District Council and Insiza Elections, Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, 2002. 145 There have been numerous reports of victims who have tried to report an abuse to the police, only to be detained and further abused by the police themselves. Another development is torture by irregulars who when they are ‘finished’ hand the victim to the police who then arrest and charge the victim with a spurious offence. Very occasionally in a ‘non-political’ case torturers are properly prosecuted, but this is the exception rather than the norm. The real significance of such cases is how seldom they occur, given how widespread torture in fact is. One recent example is S v Reza and Another HH - 2- 04 (Chinhengo and Makakarau JJ) where the appellants were two policemen who had been convicted of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after assaulting a suspect with a sjambok (a hard leather whip) on the soles of his feet. The appeal judges held that the appellants’ act fell within the realm of torture as defined in international law, finding that in other jurisdictions the beating of a person’s feet with a wooden stick or metal bar which makes no lesions and leaves no permanent and recognisable marks is regarded as torture. They ruled that in Zimbabwe it should be so regarded as well, being inclined to the view that a motive such as the extraction of a confession was a necessary element of torture, and that was the appellants’ motive in this case. 146 During March 2003 and leading up to two Parliamentary by-elections in Harare, as well as after a two-day peaceful general strike in protest against the Government, a fresh wave of Zanu-PF violence was unleashed, resulting in hundreds of civilians being beaten-up and tortured. The police were heavily involved in these abuses. 147 A notorious example of a failure to prosecute is that of CIO officer Mwale who was directly implicated in the brutal political murders of two MDC members (Mr Chiminya and Ms Mabika) in 2000. A High Court judge called on the Attorney General to investigate, but five years later Mwale is still free and openly engaging in regular acts of political violence in the east of the country. Thus although his whereabouts are known, and although there are frequent reports of his latest crimes, he is clearly above the law and continues to operate with the blessing of the Zanu-PF Government. 30