Policing the State

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“Policing the State” highlights the growth of police brutality in Zimbabwe since 2000, which has coincided with the rise of the democratic challenge to the State. During the 1990s, peaceful protest by the student movement and trades unions was tolerated to some degree, but after the forming of the Movement for Democratic Change and the loss of the February constitutional referendum in 2000, State repression escalated in all respects. The Zimbabwe government has reverted to patterns of State control established under colonialism, including mass arrests in terms of repressive legislation, combined with brutality against civilians.

The findings of this report are based on lawyers’ records from 38 legal firms in Zimbabwe, who submitted data relating to 1,981 arrests that they considered to be primarily political in motivation.