JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 136 ____________________________________________________________________ widespread violence in the period leading up to this election. The Clemency Order (1) of 2000 granted amnesty for all criminal acts committed in connection with this election, except murder, rape and fraud. As these acts had been committed predominately by members of the ruling party, it was members of the ruling party who were the major beneficiaries of this amnesty. This amnesty created the impression that members of the ruling party were immune from the law when they behaved violently and this set the stage for the increasing lawlessness that followed. The President has also exercised his constitutional power to grant individual pardons to benefit persons who have committed criminal acts on behalf of the ruling party. Some notable instances of this are these: ▪ In the 1980s during the Matabeleland crisis, five army officers were convicted and sentenced to death. Rejecting their appeals the Supreme Court, who described their actions as being the most callous they had ever seen, and confirmed death sentences for them. They were granted pardons. ▪ In 1985 a CIO officer in the middle of the night went to a cell, opened it, dragged out a prisoner whom he had been torturing during the day and shot him through the head in cold blood, accusing him of being a supporter of dissidents. Barely a week after his conviction he was also given a pardon. ▪ During the 1995 elections, a candidate in Gweru, Patrick Kombayi, was shot and nearly killed by ZANU (PF) activists and a CIO officer. The culprits were prosecuted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment. The day after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal, the President issued a specific pardon to the culprits and they went free. In its report entitled Zimbabwe The Toll of Impunity June 2002, Amnesty International said: “Impunity has become the central problem in Zimbabwe where state and non-state actors commit widespread human rights violations without being brought to justice. Unless the cycle of impunity can be broken, human rights abuses will continue unchecked and victims and their families will not see justice.”