A growing roll of honour

ully. By nightfall, 15 of them had been thrashed almost senseless at the notorious Matapi Police station and left without medical attention, food, blankets or access to lawyers for two days.
Between them they sustained five fractured arms, seven fractured arms, two sets of ruptured eardrums, innumerable bruises, lacerations and other injuries.
The extent of these injuries, sustained in unprovoked assault, shows the severity of force used against defenceless individuals. These people were not resisting arrest. They were already in police custody.
It is not the job of the police to punish people. Their job is to bring people before the courts with evidence to convict to convict them of wrong-doing.
We agree with the leader of the opposition MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, when he says that the police force in Zimbabwe is no longer a national police force – it is merely the thug wing of Zanu (PF). It is utterly un-professional and un-constitutional and its members should not be entitled to draw government salaries. Those who wear the uniform of the ZRP today are a disgrace to the nation of Zimbabwe.
We commend the brave Harare magistrate, Peter Mufunda, who on Friday ordered from beside Lovemore Matombo’s hospital bed an enquiry into the police brutality.
Predictably, but tragically for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, home affairs minister, Kembo Mohadi, has already interfered with the course of justice and countermanded the order. There will be no enquiry.
We salute the 15 trade union and political opposition leaders who were at the head of the protest and who have paid such a high price on behalf of all Zimbabweans. They join a growing roll of honour, comprising the women of WOZA, member of the NCA and many other ordinary citizens who bear on the their bodies the scars of Zanu (PF) oppression. They can break our bodies but not our spirits.