JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 48 ____________________________________________________________________ Assembly. Since the Presidential elections the police have disallowed all demonstrations by civic groups. When protestors have tried to go ahead with peaceful marches despite police bans, there has been a massive police and army presence to thwart them, and increasingly brutal measures have been used against protestors. Many protestors have been arrested and charged under the Public Order and Security Act. These protestors have often alleged that they were beaten when they were in police custody. In July 2002 Amnesty International issued a report entitled Policing to Protect Human Rights. This report accuses the government of transforming the Zimbabwe Republic Police into a partisan force, which had become little more than a party militia. It alleges that the ZRP was perpetrating human rights abuses by using repressive methods; it was using excessive or unjustified force to suppress peaceful protest and was arbitrarily detaining government opponents. The report says: “In Zimbabwe, the undermining of professional and impartial policing has taken an extreme form in the past two years. Police have been directly involved in the torture, ill treatment and arbitrary arrest of members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). They have also been complicit in nationally widespread acts of violence, arson and rape committed by state-sponsored militia against supporters of the MDC.” In political matters, it seems, the police force has removed the protection of the law from those considered to be hostile to ZANU (PF). Topic 4 4. ATTACKS UPON BUSINESSES AND AID ORGANISATIONS In April 2001 Joseph Chinotimba, a war veteran, was appointed the ZANU (PF) political commissar for Harare83. ZANU (PF) formed a five-member committee in Harare Province to deal with labour disputes. Chris Pasipamire 84, another war veteran, chaired this committee. Members of this committee included Mr Chinotimba (the political commissar) and ZANU (PF) provincial chairman Amos Midzi This was done after a new executive of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had been elected, in which the key positions had gone to persons sympathetic to the MDC. Mr Commented [User3]: Page: 48 : I’ve watered this down quite a lot.