from entering into any trade, business, or occupation while on duty.60 Forcing local miners to join syndicates also violates Zimbabwe’s obligations under the ILO Convention 29, which prohibits forced or compulsory labor.61 Killings by Police From November 21, 2006, to the end of October 2008, police committed numerous human rights abuses, including killings, torture, beatings, and harassment of local miners in Marange. The bulk of the abuses occurred when police “reaction teams” carried out raids to drive local miners from the diamond fields. During “reaction team” raids, or when local miners entered the diamond fields without paying, some police officers used live ammunition to expel them. One local miner told Human Rights Watch how he and several others were violently forced off the fields by police in August 2008: We had decided to go into the diamond fields without paying the police because we had run out of cash. We were digging in darkness when the police fired a searchlight into the sky, and the whole field was as bright as day. Then the police, about 30 of them, began to fire at us using Mossberg shotguns. Four of my colleagues were in a tunnel when the raid began and had no time to come out. Close to 200 miners were running in all directions. The shallow tunnel where my colleagues were working collapsed and trapped them inside. There was nothing I could do to save them; I had to run for my own life. On that night, three people were shot by police and died on the field. The following morning, police ordered us to bury the three bodies in one of the pits on the field. When I asked to dig out my four colleagues, a police officer told me, “consider them already buried.”62 According to several police officers interviewed by Human Rights Watch who took part in the operations, the senior police officer commanding Mutare Rural District (or DISPOL), Chief Superintendent O.C. Govo, was in charge of these operations.63 The officers said that he told them on several occasions in 2008 to “shoot on sight” any local miners found in the 60 Police Act, 1995 (Chapter 11:10), Schedule of Offences. 61 ILO Convention No. 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, adopted 28 June 1930. 62 Human Rights Watch interview with local miner R.M., Harare, February 26, 2009. 63 Human Rights Watch interviews with police officers G.S., Mutare, February 8, 2009; G.M., Harare, February 13, 2009; O.D., Mutare, February 21, 2009; and G.C., Harare, February 25, 2009. Diamonds in the Rough 24