but merely suggests that the Zimbabwe Government’s strategy to close the media space has not
affected the human rights reporting by agencies other than the press in any important way.
Reported cases
The next data available for analysis came from the actual victim cases reported to the Human
Rights Forum and its partners. This produced a sample of 1237 cases involving the ZRP from
2000 to 2006. The data base of reports contains a larger number than those recorded in the
Monthly Political Violence Reports, as the data in the Monthly Political Violence Reports only
reflect cases that actually occurred during a particular month, and reports may come in after a
monthly report has been made. This is a common occurrence, and hence many cases do not get
included in the report as they are out of time for any particular month.
The majority of the cases came from Harare, as was the case with the data from the press
reports, but the proportion in the victim cases was higher – 63% as opposed to 48%.61 For the
victim cases, there are few cases from 2000 and 2001, 62 but thereafter there are a consistent
number of victim cases reported each year, as well as a trend towards matters worsening in
2006.
The Uniform Branch of the ZRP was mentioned in virtually all cases,63 but was accompanied by a
variety of other groups, with non-state actors – Zanu(PF) supporters, war veterans [ZNLWVA] ,
and youth militia - being involved in nearly 20% of the reports. Multiple state agencies were
involved in 11% of reports, whilst reports involving state and non-state actors comprised 17% of
all reports.
There were no victim reports made to Human Rights Forum, or its members, of Zanu(PF)
supporters alleging human rights violations. Members of the MDC were the major complainants,
but so were members of the NCA; between these two groups they comprised 60% of all
reports.64 As regards the alleged violations reported, the patterns that emerge are largely similar
to those observed in the press reports.65
The next level of analysis was similar to that undertaken for the press reports, and involved
examining a number of hypotheses as before.
61
See Table 2, Appendix 3.
62
See Table 3, Appendix 3.
63
See Table 4, Appendix 3.
64
See Table 5, Appendix 3.
65
See Table 6, Appendix 3.
Who guards the guards? Violations by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, 2000 to 2006
Select target paragraph3
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