By James Gwati-The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has recorded a high number of human rights violations perpetrated by the Zimbabwe National Army and the Zimbabwe Republic Police since the bigining of this year.

This sad development is happening when the Army and the Police constitutionally mandated to protect citizens.

In its January 2021 report published, Thursday, ZPP said the Police accounted for 45.05 per cent of the 271 human rights violations in January, up from 22.61 in December, while the Army contributed to 26.07 per cent of human rights violations, compared to 7.9 per cent in December.

“The police and the army are on the frontline of enforcing the lockdown and while doing that, they have harassed, assaulted and illegally detained citizens,” said ZPP.

“ZPP documented 101 cases of harassment, 44 cases of assault, and 19 unlawful arrests, most of which are attributable to the enforcement of the lockdown regulations. It is on this basis that January was a false start to 2021, a year that was hoped to provide a break from the turmoil of 2020,” ZPP said.

All these violations by the Army and the Police, ZPP said were perpetrated in the name of enforcing the COVID-19 induced lockdown.

At roadblocks, the police are demanding cash ranging from US$1 to US$5 from passengers and drivers whom they could have found travelling without government-issued exemption letters.

In high-density suburbs, the law enforcement agents are rounding up citizens gathering at local shops, arrest them and demand money for them to be freed.

“ ZPP recorded countrywide incidents where the state security agents demanded bribes in exchange for the freedom to those they would have arrested. For example, on January 5, police at Murombedzi Growth Point in Zvimba West arrested and assaulted villagers who were at the rural shopping centre before demanding bribes. The victims were accused of not properly wearing face masks and the villagers were only released after paying between US$2.00 and US$3.00 each,” ZPP reported.