position. Only ex-combatants are promoted. We’re at the worst stage now, when everyone is doing what he wants.106 One resident of a communal area in Mashonaland East described what happened when he reported a crime carried out by war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters based on a nearby farm: I went to the police the following day. They police came and the CIO [Central Intelligence Organization, the security police] came and took pictures of the burnt houses and told me there’s nothing they can do as they are also being beaten. They arrested four youth. 107 The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reported a similar case in which a special constable attempting to carry out an arrest was assaulted: I was working as a special constable at Karuru village. On 22 July 2000 I went to [a farm] with my partner to arrest [someone] who had stolen some maize from this same farm that they had invaded. When we arrived we were beaten together with our suspect. They alleged that we were MDC supporters and [said] we should not interfere with anyone at their base. Also they said that we should not support white people and instead we should leave anyone who steals from the farms. We were forced to roll in the mud and about twelve buckets of water were poured on us. We were also threatened with death. They threatened to burn down our homes. The police came after our torture but took no action and instead [the police inspector] blamed us for interfering with the people at the base. We suffered bruises all over our bodies.108 A farm foreman told Amnesty International that: All these guys [a group of five other men] have been beaten. The war veterans said the cops are ours, they do what we tell them to do. Four police officers, then another, came out … but they didn’t stop the beating. The war veterans beat us with sticks and sjamboks [leather whips], we were beaten one by one, being accused of being MDC supporters for [the farmer].109 There are numerous reports of police failure to apprehend perpetrators of violence, or to arrest suspects only to release them without charge and without registering the case number and providing it to the complainant. Even when police have intervened to protect those threatened by violence, few arrests have been made of the alleged perpetrators since the amnesty. In repeated cases, farm workers and opposition activists told Human Rights Watch how police said the assaults were “political” and that as a consequence they would not intervene. Among the complaints they made were: • • When we went to report it at the police, he said, ‘that is your own business. You need to talk to your party leader. Go and fight back.’110 It was difficult to report to the police because we were just told to go back, it is difficult to sort these things out. They didn’t give a docket number. Running away and coming here was our only 106 Amnesty International interview November 30, 2001. Human Rights Watch interview, communal area resident, Murerwa, Mashonaland East, July 27, 2001. 108 Politically Motivated Violence in Zimbabwe, 2000-2001: A report on the campaign of political repression conducted by the Zimbabwean Government under the guise of carrying out land reform (Harare: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, July 2001), annex I. 109 Amnesty International interview, farm foreman, Marondera, December 4, 2001. 110 Human Rights Watch interview, villager A from communal area, Harare, July 16, 2001 107 Human Rights Watch 24 March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)