CRS-4 leaders as traitors, political witches, and puppets or agents of the West. In October 2007, the International Bar Association issued a report accusing Zimbabwe’s police of being “blatantly partisan” and suggesting that the force’s failure to guarantee equal protection of the law “is a major obstacle to democracy in Zimbabwe and a considerable impediment to free and fair elections.”16 As part of the 2008 electoral reforms, police were banned from the polling stations to allay fears of intimidation. However, just over a week before the elections President Mugabe issued a decree allowing police into polling stations, allegedly to help disabled voters. Election Monitoring. The Government of Zimbabwe reportedly invited election observers from over 40 countries and regional organizations, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU), but barred observers from countries considered to be critical of its policies.17 CNN and other western media organizations and journalists were reportedly denied permission to cover the elections.18 The AU observer mission, led by former President of Sierra Leone Tejan Kabbah, issued a preliminary statement after the elections suggesting that the elections were generally free and fair and expressed the will of the people. Kabbah urged all parties to accept the results. The SADC observer mission found the elections to be “a credible expression of the will of the people” but noted concerns regarding opposition access to the media, inflammatory statements by senior security officials, the presence of police officers at polling stations, and the delay in the publication of the voters’ roll. Two members of the delegation, both from South Africa’s largest opposition party, refused to sign the report, calling the elections “chaotic” and “deeply flawed.”19 Other observer groups differed with the SADC findings. The delegation of the World Council of Churches, in a joint statement with the African Council of Churches, found the elections to be “skewed in favor of the incumbent who openly utilized state resources to his advantage” and reported media bias, “violence, intimidation and outright confrontation,” and the use of food as a “political tool.”20 Press Restrictions. Two international journalists, one a Pulitzer Prizewinning American correspondent for the New York Times, were arrested on April 3, 2008. After several days in jail, they were released on bail but were blocked from leaving the country. They were acquitted on April 16. Several other journalists, both domestic and foreign, have been arrested since the elections. The director of the ZESN was briefly detained by police on April 14 and questioned about possible ties to the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which monitors elections 16 International Bar Association, Partisan Policing: An Obstacle to Human Rights and Democracy in Zimbabwe, An International Bar Association Human Rights Institute Report, October 2007. 17 “First Poll Observers in Zimbabwe,” BBC, March 11, 2008. 18 “CNN Denied Permission to Cover Elections in Zimbabwe,” CNN, March 25, 2008. 19 Statement issued by South African Member of Parliament Diane Kohler Barnard, “DA Rejects SADC Assessment of Zimbabwe Election as ‘Peaceful and Credible,’” available at [http://www.da.org.za]. 20 “Ecumenical Observers Challenge Zimbabwe Election Process and Demand Respect for the Will of the People,” World Council of Churches Press Release, April 29, 2008.