In the lead up to the June 2000 General Election, there were many instances when the police turned a blind eye to violence perpetrated against opposition MDC supporters and commercial farmers. Although some members of the force tried to carry out their duties professionally in a politically neutral manner, in many cases the police failed to intervene or to investigate murder, rape, torture or the destruction of property by “war veterans” or were actively involved themselves. In one incident, a commercial farmer was taken from a police station and killed by “war veterans”. After the 2000 General Election, and especially since the Presidential Election in 2002, the police force became increasingly partisan in favour of the ruling party. A full-scale purge of the police force has been effected. Many police officers suspected of being sympathetic to the main opposition party were forced to resign or were penalised by being transferred or demoted. Some high-ranking police officers have resigned because they believe that the police force has become unprofessional and politically biased. Many police officers have been reportedly promoted because of their loyalty to the ruling party including newly inducted war veterans and members of the youth militia. War veterans have been placed in effective charge of rural police stations to ensure that the police facilitate or actively participate in the campaign of terror against supporters of opposition parties. Increasingly, war veterans in the police are in de facto command of urban police stations, with the other officers fearful of acting contrary to their wishes. The most recent analysis of the role of the police provides the most startling demonstration of this partisanship. In an examination of 1237 cases involving the police that were reported to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, it is amply demonstrated that the police are involved in a wide variety of gross human rights violations, including torture; that senior officers of the police are involved in these violations; and that the targets are most frequently members of the opposition political party, the MDC, and other civic activists.This assertion is corroborated by a report on legal actions brought by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Rights NGO Forum on behalf of victims of violence by state actors. The Report indicates that the victims have obtained judgement in their favour in nearly 90% of the completed cases, even before the compromised Zimbabwean judiciary. 5.3.2 The prison service As with the police force, the government has taken concerted steps to weed out from the prison service members considered to be sympathetic to the opposition and to replace them with ruling party supporters. 12