non-compliance. The police provided inadequate protection to victims, and perpetrators were not consistently prosecuted. Case histories • On 30 August, MDC-T activist Godknows Dzoro Mtshakazi was beaten to death by four soldiers in Shurugwi, Midlands province, after being accused, along with several other MDC-T members, of organizing an MDC-T rally and playing a pro-MDC-T song in a bar. • On 5 September, Moreblessing Tirivangani was captured and beaten by soldiers at a military base in Chiadzwa; Tirivangani died from injuries sustained. Police transported Tirivangani’s body to a morgue, and reported that he had been captured while attempting to disarm a soldier in the diamond fields in Marange. However, witnesses reported that the soldiers seized Tirivangani when they found him in the mining area after an armyimposed curfew. 4.1.1.2 Rape Sexual assaults and rape meted out for purposes of demeaning, humiliating and punishing victims for political reasons. As a human rights violation, this differs from criminal, statutory, spousal and date rape. Policy Rape in any form is illegal in Zimbabwe under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act that provides for the punishment of offenders. Nature of violations Rape has been used to torture, intimidate and repress political opponents. In some cases rape was committed brutally in the presence of spouses or children. Those raped for political reasons have been political activists or spouses or relatives of male political activists. Perpetrators have usually been ZANU(PF) activists. Rape is stigmatized in Zimbabwe and recorded cases appear to be a partial representation of the total. Case history • 70 MDC-T-affiliated women were collectively raped by 241 different ZANU(PF) youth militia and war veterans. Each woman reported being raped five times on average, although the actual number could be higher, as many women fell unconscious during the attacks. The perpetrators made political statements during the rape. The cases of rape were not reported to the police. 4.1.1.3 Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed; such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.* * Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (United Nations, 1985). Zimbabwe Human Rights Report – 2009 11