13 The second incident mentioned, in the ZRP’s first report, occurred when youths suspected of stoning vehicles fled into a maize field. Without meeting any of the requirements given above the police, on their own account,28 appear to have sprayed bullets at random into the maize field, injuring one of the suspects. WHAT THE REPORTS ATTEMPT TO CONCEAL As suggested above, the ZRP reports appear to be an attempt to counter, deflect and distract from the negative publicity arising after the events following March 11th, 2007. It is necessary to outline those events briefly in order to rebut the false claims made in this regard in the first ZRP report. In February and March 2007, civil society activists attempted to hold numerous meetings and demonstrations in response to the deteriorating political and economic conditions within the country. It had also become apparent by then that President Mugabe was planning to set the next parliamentary and presidential election for March 2008, and opposition parties attempted to hold several meetings to launch their election campaigns. The ZRP did everything possible to try to prevent this activity from taking place. They disrupted, tear gassed and banned meetings and demonstrations, and arrested some 400 people while implementing this policy in February 2007 alone29. Many of those arrested over this period were tortured while in police custody, usually at the hands of the notorious Law and Order Section of the ZRP. On 18th February, 2007 the police responded to notice30 given by the MDC of a rally in Highfields suburb, in typical fashion, by declaring the rally prohibited. However, the MDC obtained an order from the High Court which allowed the rally to go ahead. The ZRP defied the court order and prevented people from entering the venue by bringing in the Police Reaction Unit (Riot Police), firing teargas and beating people with batons. Angry youths retaliated by throwing stones at the police. The ZRP used the mayhem that resulted as an excuse to impose an (unlawful31) ban on “demonstrations and rallies”32. In addition, an unofficial curfew was enforced in various high density33 areas of Harare, through random beatings by the ZRP of persons found on the streets after dark. Although it was not necessary to do so, to ensure that a proposed meeting convened for March 11 th 2007 by a civic organisation Save Zimbabwe Campaign fell outside the ambit of the “ban”, the organisers 28 Page 17 of the first report. See Bashing Dissent: Escalating Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe Human Rights Watch Volume 9, No 6(A) May 2007 generally and which has been drawn on for some of the information used here. 30 Given in terms of section 24 of POSA. 31 See above (p 4) for a discussion of this point. 32 With effect from 20/02/07 33 “High density areas” refers to areas of housing occupied by the poorer sections of Zimbabwean urban society where houses are closely grouped in contrast to the affluent “low density areas” where houses typically stand on land of one or two acres and often more. 29