of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders while in custody, President Mugabe said “when the police say move, move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force.”76 By 2007 Zimbabwe’s police force had become notorious for supporting ZANU-PF and harassing and torturing opposition and civil society leaders. For example, police and state security officers arrested and severely beat opposition and civil society leaders on March 11, 2007, in an attempt to prevent a prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare.77 President Mugabe boasted about these beatings and publicly supported the police’s conduct. Addressing a ZANU-PF rally on March 29, 2007, Mugabe said, “of course he [MDC leader Tsvangirai] was bashed. He deserved it... l told the police to beat him.”78 Police Inaction when ZANU-PF and Allies are Implicated in Political Violence Human Rights Watch interviewed serving police officers who spoke of a nationallevel policy to not pursue ZANU PF militia and other allies of ZANU-PF implicated in political violence. Such a policy violates Zimbabwe’s obligations under international law to ensure that victims of human rights violations “have an effective remedy.”79 According to the UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors state compliance with the ICCPR, “[a] failure by a State Party to investigate allegations of violations could in and of itself give rise to a separate breach of the Covenant.”80 A detective inspector in the Law and Order Section (Criminal Investigation Division) based in Harare explained to Human Rights Watch the approach of the police in “political” matters: 76 ”You deserve the beatings, Mugabe tells trade unionists,” Association of Zimbabwe Journalists, http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=1043&cat+4 (accessed November 5, 2008). 77 Human Rights Watch, Bashing Dissent: Escalating Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe, vol. 19, no. 6(A), May 2007, http://hrw.org/reports/2007/zimbabwe0507/. 78 Ibid. 79 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),G.A.res.2200A(XXI),U.N.Doc.A/6316 (1966), Article 2(3)(a). 80 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31, Nature of the General Legal Obligation on States Parties to the Covenant, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13 (2004), para. 15. 25 Human Rights Watch November 2008