JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 29 ____________________________________________________________________ For further details on the Chiminya and Mabika case, see Appendix 2 which gives extracts from a recent Amnesty International report. The farm invasion cases When the farm invasions started in 2000 the Police Commissioner refused to intervene, saying that the police could not act in this matter because it was a political issue that could only be dealt with politically. 41 The police simply ignored a number of court orders requiring them to take action. For example, on 17 March 2000 Garwe J granted an order declaring the farm invasions to be unlawful and ordering the Commissioner of Police to deploy sufficient manpower to evict all illegal settlers from commercial farms. The order was issued with the consent of all the parties to the proceedings, and the Commissioner was one of those parties. He did not comply with the order, however, but instead sought an amendment which would have absolved him from any duty to evict the settlers. The application for amendment was heard by Chinhengo J42 who characterised the invasions as illegal and of a riotous nature. He said that the Commissioner of Police had a clear duty to enforce the consent order and to afford commercial farmers the protection of the law enshrined in the Constitution. The rule of law meant that everyone must be subject to a shared set of rules that are applied universally and which deal on an even-handed basis with people and which treat like cases alike. Whilst the laws remained in existence, however, the courts had the duty to enforce those laws and those affected by official inaction were entitled to bring actions based on the law to protect their interests. The Commissioner of Police did not appeal against the order of Chinhengo J, but did not comply with it either. Politicians urged further “demonstrations”, and the police pleaded insufficiency of manpower and what might be termed “superior orders”. 43 The police were greatly fortified in their refusal to intervene in land invasion cases by repeated statements by President Mugabe that he would ignore court judgments ruling to be illegal any aspects of land seizures of white owned farms. Addressing the ZANU (PF) Central Committee, he is reported44 to have warned judges that they would not be allowed to “go against our quest for full sovereignty”. According to the