11 human rights defenders are portrayed as deviant women who have malicious intentions. This form of treatment amounts to sexuality baiting,(51) which is aimed at undermining the work of women human rights defenders by discrediting their activities and isolating them from the rest of the human rights movement. This affects the credibility and legitimacy of women human rights defenders who advocate on issues that specifically concern women. Amnesty International received credible information of how women who dare to challenge violations of economic and social rights in Zimbabwe are subject to derogatory or sinister accusations by the police, which are aimed at discrediting their character. Lawyers in Bulawayo, Mutare and Harare, who have represented women human rights defenders when they are arrested, told Amnesty International that male police officers subject women human rights defenders to sexist verbal abuse. Statements made to the women by police officers include the following: "I am not here to sleep with you." "You should go and find husbands instead of wasting time engaging in WOZA things." "Why do you leave your husbands to be detained in police cells." "Your husbands are not giving you enough sex – that is why you have the energy to confront the government." Older women are told to "go and practise witchcraft" instead of engaging in activism. Almost all women interviewed by Amnesty International had been subjected to sexist verbal attacks by police while in custody. Such attacks are evidence of the police’s endorsement of negative gender stereotypes and gender discrimination. They insinuate that women human rights defenders have no business becoming active in the public sphere in defence of human rights. Attacks of this kind amount to violence against women and constitute violations of women’s human rights.(52) These attacks often translate into physical assault of women human rights defenders during arrest and detention, and denial of other rights, including access to lawyers, medical care and food, while in police custody. Deception and disinformation to evade accountability and justify suppression of dissent All opposition forces in Zimbabwe and beyond our borders have been, for a long time, working either individually, separately and jointly in strategizing for regime change in Zimbabwe(53) Zimbabwe Republic Police, 2007 Since we are in a struggle for human rights, we are seen as enemy combatants by the police. Woman human rights defender with the National Constitutional Assembly, February 2007 The government has manipulated a genuine grievance concerning the stark imbalances in land ownership, created during colonialism, to shield itself from being held accountable for human rights violations. Many such violations extend well beyond those related to the fast-track land reform programme. The government of Zimbabwe justifies suppression of dissent, including the use of excessive force, torture and violence against government critics and members of the political opposition parties. The government alleges that international criticism of its human rights record is mainly the result of an attempt by the former colonial power – the United Kingdom – to undermine its land reform programme. The government of Zimbabwe has repeatedly portrayed human rights defenders as violent individuals bent on removing the government. It has claimed that civil society organizations in Zimbabwe are being sponsored by western governments to effect regime change. This is despite the fact that even the ZRP has publicly acknowledged that organizations like WOZA are engaging in non-violent peaceful action.(54) This strategy has been effective in galvanising support for President Robert Mugabe and his government from African leaders who have, until recently, expressed unqualified solidarity with the government. Instead of demanding investigations into human rights violations and government accountability for them, African leaders either remained quiet about the situation in Zimbabwe or shielded Zimbabwe from being discussed at multilateral level, including in the UN and the African Union. False accusations against human rights defenders by senior government officials; a failure to institute investigations into alleged human rights abuses by the police; combined with a failure to bring to justice suspected perpetrators within state security organizations of abuses against human rights defenders, have created a culture of impunity within these organizations. In particular, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department’s Law and Order Section of the ZRP have subjected human rights defenders to ill-treatment, beatings and torture with the full knowledge that they will not be held accountable. Police officers have become partisan in how they enforce the law. They see it as a duty to defend the ruling party.