Reports of the training of ruling party militia have increased in recent months; as have reports of the terrorization of anyone believed to be a potential opposition supporter, whether in rural or urban areas. Human Rights Watch is concerned that an infrastructure for ongoing political and criminal violence has been laid. It will be much harder to restore peace than it has been to mobilize violence for political purposes. An end to impunity is urgently needed. Police Failure to Protect Victims Although the Zimbabwean government has called for peaceful coexistence between farm owners and the new settlers, it has dismissed violence against farm workers and farm owners as an unfortunate cost of longoverdue land reform that has been obstructed by white farm owners. Rural militias led by the war veterans can usually count on noninterference or limited intervention by the police when they commit acts of political violence. On October 6, 2000, President Mugabe, using his presidential powers, issued an amnesty for politically motivated crimes committed between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2000, the period of the campaign for the February 2000 referendum and the June 2000 parliamentary elections. The amnesty did not cover murder, rape, and robbery. 100 Some victims of violence who had returned home during the period of relative calm that followed the June elections were again victimized by people who had been arrested and were then released following the amnesty. One displaced women of fifty-four described how she and her family members were beaten and driven from their land in Mashonaland East in June 2000. “A group of Zanu came, some from the nearest farm and some from the locality, beating people up and saying ‘you people are supporting other parties, we only want one party in this country.’” She said the police were initially very unresponsive but eventually arrested six people, and the woman and her family, who had fled to Harare, returned home. “Then after the amnesty they started coming back saying we don’t want you here.”101 Accordingly, they were forced to leave again. The government dismisses allegations of police failure to act. A senior official in the Department of Land stated to Human Rights Watch that: “I’m not aware of any dereliction of duty on the part of the police…. you can’t have a police post on every farm.”102 Yet human rights groups report that the police have become increasingly partisan. 103 In January 2001, police commissioner Augustine Chihuri, who had initially adopted the attitude that farm occupations were a political matter which could not be handled by the police, stated, “I support Zanu-PF because it is the ruling party.”104 In December 2001, Chihuri accused the opposition of involvement in terrorism. 105 Political interference in police work has been reported by opposition parties and human rights groups, as well as by some current and former police officers. Amnesty International researchers interviewed one former police officer who described his experience: I had twenty years of service, but I was fired because I was accused of supporting the MDC… I liked my job, I was loyal, I was proud to be a policeman to serve my nation, and now it hurts me to see the police officers are working for a political party, not the nation… The police are frightened of the war veterans, they have their own command structure, and if you arrest them, they will get them out of jail. If one is an ex-combatant, one can be promoted to take your 100 See IBA report, paragraph 8.17. Human Rights Watch interview, former communal area resident, Harare, July 16, 2001. 102 Human Rights Watch interview, Dr. Vincent Hungwe, Principal Director of Land and Rural Resettlement, Harare, July 30, 2001. 103 See, for example, Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe (Harare: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, September 2001). 104 Daily News (Harare), January 16, 2001; as reported in Politically Motivated Violence in Zimbabwe, 2000-2001, footnote 80. 105 “Police chief vows to clamp down on terror, dissent in Zimbabwe,” SAPA, December 7, 2001. 101 Human Rights Watch 23 March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)