On June 21 police in Bulawayo assaulted and arrested two WOZA members and held them for two days before releasing them without charge. On August 13 nine women members of WOZA were arrested in Bulawayo; they were released without charge on August 16.117 On June 3 five senior police officers from the Law and Order Section of the Criminal Investigation Division, Harare, visited Abel Chikomo, executive director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, at his offices in Harare and warned him and his organization not to continue working in the area of human rights advocacy or they would face unspecified consequences.118 On June 11 police ordered several NGOs in Gweru to shut down on the authority of a letter banning food aid operations from Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas Goche.119 On June 9 armed police, Central Intelligence Organization officers, and soldiers raided a building that houses various church-based civic groups and arrested 10 people, charging them with possessing subversive material. The 10 were released on June 13 without going to court after the attorney general’s office refused to prosecute them, citing lack of evidence.120 Attacks, Harassment and Abuse of Lawyers Taking up Political Cases According to the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, most lawyers were now unwilling to take on so-called political cases for fear of the personal hazards associated with confronting the government in representing MDC and civil society activists.121 A small number of lawyers do buck this trend.122 But they have adopted a strategy of not visiting police stations alone, taking at least two colleagues who can alert other 117 Ibid. 118 Human Rights Watch interview with Abel Chikomo, London, September 16, 2008. 119 “Zimbabwe: Crackdown Intensifies on Opposition Leaders and NGOs,” Human Rights Watch news release, June 14, 2008, http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/13/zimbab19131.htm 120 Ibid. 121 Comments made by Law Society of Zimbabwe President Beatrice Mtetwa, in an address to the England and Wales Law Society, London, October 2007, on file with ZLHR, reviewed August 29, 2008. 122 Human Rights Watch interview with lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, Harare, August 24, 2008. 35 Human Rights Watch November 2008