Table 5 Legal consequences for all cases from Harare and Chitungwiza [n= 1431] warra nt issue d. 21 withdraw n before plea withdraw n after plea rema nd acquitt ed 223 reman d refuse d 407 412 1.5% 28.8% fine d communit y service 45 suspen d senten ce 20 18 14 4 15.6% 28.4% 1.3% 3.2% 1.4% 0.9 % 0.3% c u t s 3 3 2 . 3 % The number detained is of great concern when it is learned subsequently that so few — only 18% overall — could be convicted in a court of law. Firstly, there are prima facie cases of unlawful arrest and illegal detention that need to be considered. Many of these people were detained for periods in excess of two weeks, and suffered considerable hardship during that time and even afterwards. It is important to point out here that a prima facie allegation of being a criminal can result in people losing their jobs, being shunned by neighbours and their community, quite apart from the actual hardship experienced during incarceration. Secondly, detention may well have lead to further human rights abuses. There is virtually no data about the conditions in the prisons at the time of the Food Riots, but it is not difficult to imagine that the injection of a further 2,300 persons into the prisons in and around Harare must have aggravated the existing overcrowding and produced extreme discomfort for all. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has seen only a single person who was imprisoned after the Food Riots, so we do not have good data on the situation in the prisons. However, according to the one report that we do have, this person alleges that there was widespread torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the ZRP in particular. Thirdly, this leads to concerns about those convicted. Bearing in mind that 78% of those convicted were given custodial sentences this is not a trivial issue. There has been no attempt to establish how many persons may have been subjected to torture or duress, and, since the NGO Forum has received credible reports of persons being convicted on warned and cautioned statements obtained under duress, there must be considerable concern that many persons who were convicted were convicted inappropriately. Fourthly, there are credible reports that there was interference with the justice process by members of the Government. It is reliably reported that a meeting was held between senior members of the ZRP, the Attorney-General’s Office, senior magistrates and possibly some Ministers, at which it was agreed that bail hearings would be delayed and remand hearings postponed. This is given additional significance by the decision of the Attorney-General not to proceed against the Mayor-Elect of Chitungwiza, Mr Macheka, a decision that was roundly condemned by civic society groups and legal groups. The inference here is that there could have been some kind of cover-up for human rights violations. In conclusion, this analysis of very scanty data gives considerable cause for concern. The allegations of drag-net arrests seems borne out by the very high rate of discharges by the justice machinery, more than 70% having the cases against them dismissed. There is also the concern that the lengthy periods of incarceration, apart from being an infringement of civil liberties, may have led to experiences of torture and ill-treatment and much more serious infringements of human rights. There is finally the concern that there may have been political interference in the justice machinery. All of these concerns need to be dispelled by an open investigation into the events around the Food Riots, as was requested by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and the UN Human Rights Committee. pris on 197 13.8 %