By Own Correspondent| The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has condemned the excessive use of force by security details.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Commission said it is unfortunate that last week’s disturbances have led to a number of deaths of civilians and a police
officer.

Said ZHRC:

Whilst the Commission’s investigations are still in progress some facts have since been verified. For example, a 22 year old young man, Tinashe Choto died as a result of
gun shots and was buried on Saturday 19 January 2019. A post mortem report read to family members by the authorities confirmed the cause of death as gun shots.

Eye witnesses confirmed that the young man was shot near Makoni Police station during a face-off between the protesters and law enforcement agents. This is what incensed the protesters leading to the attack of Makoni Police Station.

At least 8 deaths have been reported to the Commission and mostly attributed to use of live ammunition. Whilst the police officers in charge were not forthcoming with their side of the story, the verified facts raise a lot of questions around the crowd control capacity of the law enforcement agents.

They seem to resort to use of brute, excessive and disproportionate force in most circumstances thereby causing avoidable loss of life and also worsening the situation.

Below is the full text of the report by the ZHRC: