Shocking: Police Claim They Have No Suspects For August 1 Killings Because They Did Not Know Causes Of Death

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has told the Commission of Inquiry investigating the August 1 violence that it has no suspects for the death of six people who died after the military used lived bullets to disperse protesters.

Acting officer commanding (crime) Harare, Detective Chief Inspector Edmore Runganga told the Commission that until this week the police had been unable to establish the cause of death. Said Rungaga,

Shocking: Police Claim They Have No Suspects For August 1 Killings Because They Did Not Know Causes Of Death

We have not made any arrests in relation to the death of the six people. We have not yet established what caused their death although we now have post-mortem reports which indicate that the deaths were caused by projectiles from firearms. We don’t know the exact place of shootings because there are no witnesses.

We only asked those MDC guys who we had arrested on charges of public violence if they knew anything on the shootings, and they did not know anything. But so far, we don’t have other suspects in connection with the shooting…Now that we have the post-mortem reports, we are now treating it as a murder case.

However, Runganga said that the police was going to arrest MDC leader Nelson Chamisa for inciting violence. Said Runganga,

We have not made any arrests of people who were inciting violence prior to the elections because we are investigating to try and have concrete evidence on how they incited the violence. Once the investigations are complete, they will definitely be charged for inciting violence, as defined by section 187, as read with section 36 and 37 of the Code.