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Security sector reform necessary now more than ever
Youth Forum
November 02, 2011

The violence that rocked Harare yesterday, 1 November 2011, which was instigated by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, fingered as one of the bodies criminally pillaging diamonds in Chiadzwa acts as a reminder that the security sector still needs to reform in order to gain the support and trust of ordinary Zimbabweans.

The fact that the police, mandated with the duty of maintaining peace and restoring order when there are disturbances, happens to be the troublemakers during the violence, unashamedly exhibits the levels of lawlessness and absence of the rule of law in the country.

When lawlessness reaches levels where order maintaining agents become the nuisances, the general citizenry will take the law unto their own hands and deliver instant justice to the police.

It's understood that the afternoon's chaos began when police tried to arrest local vendors who retaliated, resulting in skirmishes with officers. The police officers apparently retreated to get reinforcements, but when they returned the vendors had scattered.

According to the witnesses, a group of about 36 fully armed police officers stormed Harvest House at around 1500Hrs, saying they were looking for the illegal vendors. The officers blocked the main road outside the headquarters and then started firing tear gas, both inside and outside the building, causing MDC-T staff and passers-by to flee. Social networking sites like Facebook were yesterday awash with images from eyewitnesses of the police firing teargas on the public, as the violence spread to other areas of the Central Business District (CBD). Many businesses in the city had to close early because of the skirmishes.

Zimbabwe, a country with well-known organized criminal groups like Chipangano that earnestly need police attention but has so far received none, has seen the police, will be shocked why the police decide to expend their energy on so-called vendors from one particular area of the CBD before dealing with well-known criminals in the form of Chipangano.

Chipangano has terrorized Harare residents for months now with the police turning a blind eye, choosing to focus on 'vendors' working inside the Harvest house. The same police force has also stopped a number of MDC-T rallies lined up for Matebeleland North in the past week, gatherings which had received a green light from the High Court.

These events only serve to show that without wholesome security sector reforms, the country's political field will never be level and it is up to the inclusive government negotiators and SADC to commit to making sure that such reforms are implemented before any election is called for.

The fact that the police, together with the army and the Intelligence, have been fingered as dubious beneficiaries of large sums of monies from Chiadzwa diamonds will make it very difficult for the sector leaders to agree to such reforms willingly. This makes it imperative for the relevant authorities to realize that implementing the reforms will involve a lot of sacrifices, sacrifices that are necessary for the benefit of the country and eventually the region's citizenry to benefit and become stable again.

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