Shame and sorrow are evident in the furrowed brow of Taurai Maganda as he describes a murder he witnessed. ”One man was picked up because he was wearing an MDC T-shirt. That was all. He was handcuffed and several police kicked with their heavy boots and they beat his head with a rifle butt,” said Mr Maganda. ”He fell unconscious and died. They said he jumped from a truck.”
The murder of the supporter of Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was one of five deaths in custody in just one police district, Mr Maganda said.
Such an account of crimes committed by police would be commonplace in the twilight days of Robert Mugabe’s hold over Zimbabwe — except that Maganda was a policeman himself. After being accused of being an opposition supporter, he fled to the UK and was granted asylum. ”We were ordered to do terrible things,” Maganda, aged 29, told the Guardian. ”Even here in England, I am still troubled by what I saw and what I had to do.”
Maganda — whose name has been changed to protect his family in Zimbabwe — said he was forced to beat people on the soles of their feet and ”all over” their bodies. When asked what else he was ordered to do, he hangs his head and shakes it as if trying to rid it of some troubling image. Clearly it will be a long time before he recovers from the trauma. ”I don’t like to think about those experiences, but I feel better if I talk about them and get them off my chest,” he said.
He said police were ordered to ignore crimes committed against supporters of the opposition party. Police in his area of ten planted marijuana and other illegal substances on people in order to arrest them and beat them, he said. Maganda said many other ranking officers had left the force and been replaced by untrained, uneducated, violent loyalists of the ruling Zanu-PF party, transforming the force from upholders of the rule of law into a partisan gang of brutal henchmen.
The police have killed, maimed and beaten scores of Zimbabweans suspected of no crime except supporting the legal opposition party, according to interviews with police who have recently left the force and some still in service. ”They don’t take the exams for promotions, as we used to do,” he said. ”They don’t care about crime, all they care about is stamping out the opposition.”
Maganda was harassed by the new loyalists on the force, who accused him of supporting the MDC. Soon after cabinet minister Elliott Manyika publicly denounced Maganda, his commanding officer seized his gun. ”I could see they were going to frame me for something and arrest me, so I went into hiding,” he said. Eventually he made it to Britain and was granted asylum.
Chilling
Maganda’s chilling testimony is endorsed by George Chipato, aged 41, an assistant inspector who was in the force for 20 years. ”I was forced out because they said I supported the MDC,” said Mr Chipato, whose name has also been changed. ”More than 200 others of my rank have been forced out. They were replaced by people without qualifications. Officers in charge of stations have low educations. They tell the police not to investigate crimes against MDC supporters.”
Chipato said that ”police in the law and order section at Harare central charge office are torturing people with terrible beatings and electric shocks. This has been going on for some time.”
During May’s five-day national strike the heavily armed police cooperated with gangs of thugs to thwart peaceful protest marches. Police who object to inflicting violence on innocent civilians are hounded from the force by threats of violence and trumped-up charges against them.
In the presidential elections last year, police were forced to cast their ballots for Mugabe while watched by high-ranking officers, according to accounts from insiders. They say many were ordered to vote more than once. The police have become so thoroughly corrupted and aligned to the Mugabe regime that considerable rehabilitation efforts will be needed to return the force to its role of even-handedly upholding the rule of law.
The police are so inextricably bound to the ruling party that they would be a serious impediment to free and fair elections, according to political analysts. But increasingly brutal work and poor conditions are creating dissension in the ranks, and some police may refuse to fire on crowds should the population mass in opposition to Mugabe.
The international policing agency Interpol maintains a close relationship with the Zimbabwe police. Interpol is currently building its southern African regional offices in Harare. The Zimbabwean police commissioner Augustine Chihuri has served as Interpol’s regional vice-president for several years and was recently awarded a lifetime vice-presidency of the agency.
But last month Interpol forced Chihuri to resign the honorary post after it objected to public boasting by police representatives that Interpol endorsed the work of Zimbabwean police. That was a first step but much more international pressure is needed to isolate the Zimbabwean force, say civic leaders. ”That could be a turning point for the police. It is time the international community distances itself from the Zimbabwean force,” said Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent. ”The police have become increasingly partisan and unprofessional in the execution of their duties.”
Kate Allen, Amnesty’s UK director, said: ”Zimbabwean authorities should immediately end the political misuse of the police and ensure that police officers abide by the highest standards of professionalism and respect for human rights. The government should immediately cease all intimidation, arbitrary arrests and torture of political opponents, independent media and human rights activists.”
Zimbabwean church leaders have also identified the police as a threat. In March Christian ministers marched through Harare, carrying large wooden crosses, to urge the police to stop inflicting violence on the people. They tried to deliver a petition to the police commissioner, but the police responded in characteristic fashion — by throwing the pastors in jail. – Guardian Unlimited Â