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IV. Excessive Use of Force by Police during Demonstrations

Police use of excessive force against unarmed and peaceful demonstrators in Zimbabwe has become a common occurrence, and recent demonstrations by unarmed peaceful protesters have been met with great heavy-handedness. On several occasions during the course of arrests police have forced protesters to lie on their stomachs or sit down, and beaten them with batons and in some cases rifle butts.⁵  The assault and arrest of peaceful demonstrators appear to be designed to harass and deter the activists from engaging in the right to freely assemble and express their views.  As one activist pointed out, “They are sending us a clear message. If you demonstrate, this is what you get.”⁶

On September 13, 2006, close to 130 members of the mass trade union organization the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were arrested during peaceful demonstrations throughout the country against poor working conditions and government economic and political policies.⁷ Video footage of a demonstration in Harare obtained by Human Rights Watch shows police beating unarmed trade unionists with batons before bundling them into a van and a truck (for the subsequent torture and mistreatment of 15 of these detainees at Harare’s Matapi police station, see Section VI, below).

Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, was one of 13 trade unionists arrested and taken to Harare Central police station during the September 13 demonstrations. He told Human Rights Watch:

About seven of us were marching along the road when the police came and told us to stop. They started beating people up with baton sticks and made them sit down. I asked them “Why are you beating us? What have we done wrong?” Then they started forcing people into a police van and a truck. I saw them beating the colleagues who were put into the van. They were too many and couldn’t fit and police started hitting them with their baton sticks to force them into the van. I was put onto a truck.⁸

On the same day about 20 police officers arrested 13 ZCTU members during a demonstration in a Harare suburb. The group was ordered to stop their demonstration and sit down. According to one activist, “[T]he police fired some shots in the air. They forced us down with their baton sticks and told us we were demonstrating illegally and then they started beating us.”⁹ While on the ground the trade unionists were beaten with batons and rifle butts, and kicked. After about half an hour of beatings they were ordered to go home. 

On September 20, up to 180 members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were arrested for demonstrating in Mutare city center.¹⁰  According to the account of one NCA member, police forced the activists to sit on the ground, and then beat them with batons before taking them to Mutare Central police station.¹¹  A medical report given to Human Rights Watch by a private medical practitioner who visited and examined 29 of the activists soon after their arrest found that many of the victims had sustained injuries on their backs and arms that to him were consistent with blows by a blunt object.¹²  Many of the victims also had “defensive injuries” on their arms and hands.¹³

In an incident on September 25, police violently disrupted a peaceful march by about 500 NCA members demonstrating for a new constitution and protesting the assault by police officers of the 15 ZCTU members in Harare.¹⁴  NCA Information Officer Columbus Mavunga told Human Rights Watch that when the demonstrators reached the parliament building the police asked them to divert the march.  According to Mavunga, “The riot police came and asked the activists to sit down and then they started to beat them one by one with baton sticks before telling them to leave. Some people panicked and there was a stampede which injured about 24 people, seven of whom were seriously injured and taken to the hospital.”¹⁵  Medical personnel who treated the activists at a private medical unit told Human Rights Watch that some of the activists had sustained extensive soft tissue injuries on the elbows, arms and backs consistent with blows from police batons.¹⁶

The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials provide that law enforcement officials should apply non-violent means in carrying out their duties and only use force when strictly necessary.¹⁷  When the use of force is unavoidable, it should be used in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved, and shall minimize damage and injury.¹⁸