18 have been brought against those who tortured Choto and Chavunduka;40 no charges have been brought against those who tortured Member of Parliament, Job Sikhala, and human rights lawyer, Gabriel Shumba; no charges have been brought against Chief Detective Inspector Dowa who is alleged to have tortured prisoners; and the murderers of Chiminya and Mabika still remain at large.41 The practice of torture is clearly encouraged by the informal impunity afforded by the Government of Zimbabwe to most of the perpetrators. The failure of the Zimbabwean authorities to ratify the UN Torture Convention, when most countries in the region have already done so, gives rise to justifiable suspicion that there are sinister reasons for this failure. The suspicion is that it does not want to ratify the Convention because ratification would make it far more difficult to continue to employ torture against its political opponents. If this suspicion is unfounded and the Zimbabwean Government now wishes to show that it is determined to prevent torture within Zimbabwe, and also contribute to the international effort to put an end to the scourge of torture, it should ratify the Torture Convention as soon as possible. Justices Chinhengo and Makarau, in their judgement, quote approvingly an article in the Statecontrolled Zimbabwe Herald in its issue of 28 January 2003. “Torture is banned in Zimbabwe but there is, most unfortunately, a small minority in the country who think they can get away with using torture as a short-cut to the professional techniques used by the police. There are four strong objections to torture. First and most important, it breaches a fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution and in international treaties to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. Secondly, it does not produce much practical information. Most people, faced with torture, will admit to anything, whether they did it or not, and will try to figure out what sort of lies that the torturer wants to hear and then tell them. The information obtained is very dubious. Thirdly, it degrades the torturer. The victim is not degraded. The victim is hurt by the torturer but will receive the sympathy of all right-thinking people later and will even become some sort of a hero. The torturer will be regarded as some monster fit for the gutter. Finally, even if any remotely valuable evidence is obtained, it will be thrown out in any trial. Thus we might have the wrong person brought to court, because they have admitted something they did not do, or the right person going free because the evidence is tainted. Neither is desirable. Thus there are legal, moral and practical objections to torture. It is wrong and it does not work. 40 41 Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were severely tortured in 1999 by state agents for printing a story in which it was alleged that a coup had taken place in the army. See Redress (2005), ZIMBABWE: THE FACE OF TORTURE AND ORGANISED VIOLENCE. Torture and Organised Violence in the run-up to the 31 March 2005 General Parliamentary Election, LONDON: REDRESS TRUST. All these cases are discussed in detail in this report. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Only bruises on the soles of their feet. The use of Falanga by the Zimbabwe Republic Police.