ZIMBABWE: FROM IMPUNITY TO ACCOUNTABILITY Zimbabweans 34 Constitution. into challenging Zanu-PF’s abuse of the Even after the cycle of impunity for human rights violations is broken, there will be an urgent need for radical reforms in other areas. One institution that requires specific attention is the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). More will be needed than rebuilding the professionalism and reversing the ‘Zanunisation’ of the ZRP. The fact is that the ZRP, as did the pre-Independence police force from which it developed, has always routinely resorted to brutality and torture to a greater or lesser extent in the course of ordinary policing, and not only during the maintenance of ‘law and order’ at critical political stages in the country’s history, such as at 35 present. Until and unless this problem too is acknowledged and resolutely challenged, the scourge of torture and other violations at the hands of state officials will continue, albeit at a less systematic and widespread level than is the case now. In this Zimbabwe is not unique. Many other countries have faced this issue of how to police the police, and how to safeguard those in custody from unlawful abuse. The time is ripe for Zimbabwe civil society to insist that this too needs serious attention. One of the basic problems is the inherent difficulty in relying on any institution to monitor itself, and the tendency especially of those in a service organization (be it the police, the army or the prison service) to close ranks and to cover-up violations. This tendency is not restricted to service organizations, but it is particularly prevalent in strictly hierarchical bodies where it is difficult for junior ranks to challenge the conduct of their seniors without themselves being victimized, along with a culture of patronage and the avoidance of responsibility which leads seniors 34 From the mid-90s civil society organisations began to work with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to campaign for a new Constitution which would entrench human rights and curtail presidential power. Out of this alliance grew the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) to oppose the Government’s Constitutional Referendum. The MDC itself also grew out of this coalition. 35 See REDRESS Zimbabwe Country Study, supra. 26