diamond fields.64 Another police officer who witnessed the killing of three local miners told Human Rights Watch: At the end of August 2008, DISPOL Govo addressed us and said we were all too lenient with local miners. He then said he was going to show us how to deal decisively with local miners. Around 10 that night, he led us to a wellknown camp of local miners in the hills. First he fired a searchlight into the air and then he began to shoot randomly at the sleeping miners. I saw him shoot and kill three miners. Many others ran into the night. He told us to leave the bodies, saying the other miners who had run away would return to bury their dead.65 A 23-year-old man who was shot by the police in the diamond fields in October 2008 told Human Rights Watch: Three policemen on horseback raided us while we worked in the diamond fields and immediately fired their shotguns at us. I was shot in the left thigh. A friend later took out four pellets from my left thigh where I was shot. Two of my friends were shot and killed during that raid.66 Arbitrary Arrests and Detentions Police also routinely and arbitrarily arrested members of the local community in the area around the diamonds fields, often without any reasonable suspicion that a person was involved in illegal or unlicensed mining, prospecting, or trading.67 Several villagers told Human Rights Watch that they were frequently subjected to beatings and harassment during the course of arrest and while in detention, which often was for between four and seven days in makeshift police camps on the diamond fields, before they were taken to Mutare remand prison for further detention and the court process. A former detainee, part of a large group of people detained in April 2008, described to Human Rights Watch how, after having been arrested while selling cigarettes and food at Chakohwa shopping center, he was detained for 64 Human Rights Watch interview with police officer T.M., Mutare, February 23, 2009. 65 Human Rights Watch interview with police officer O.M., Mutare, February 23, 2009. 66 Human Rights Watch interview with local miner B.C., Mutare, February 23, 2009. 67 Human Rights Watch interviews with villagers T.N., B.N., R.T., and R.M., Mutare, February 8, 2009. 25 Human Rights Watch | June 2009