The human rights community of Zimbabwe made strong appeals to Government to control the situation and to obey the principle of "minimum force" that needs to be observed when dealing with civilians. Amnesty International made a strong appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs to repudiate his view that the situation required the use of arms of war and the shooting of unarmed civilians.

The human rights organisations call upon Government to set up, as soon as possible, an independent Commission of Inquiry headed by a High Court Judge to investigate these allegations of human rights violations. In the interests of transparency and accountability the findings of this Commission must be made public. Pending the setting up of such a Commission, the organisations request Parliament to establish its own Committee to look into these allegations and report its findings to Parliament. In conducting these investigations the Parliamentary Committee should enlist the assistance of the Ombudsman’s office which now has jurisdiction to investigate allegations of human rights abuses on the part of members of the police, army and prison service. Although the Ombudsman may only investigate when complaints have been made to that office, the proposed Parliamentary Committee would be able to refer some of the complainants to the Ombudsman’s office so that their complaints can be investigated by personnel in this office.

Following these inquiries arrangements must be made for compensation to be awarded to all persons found to have suffered human rights abuses without those persons having to bring claims in the courts. Government must also take stern disciplinary action against all those who are proven to have perpetrated human rights abuses to send a clear signal that this sort of misconduct will not be tolerated.

In respect of those who are alleged to have engaged in unlawful violence the law must continue to take its course. However these cases must be dealt with according to the ordinary rules of procedure and evidence which are there to ensure that accused persons receive fair trials. Any cases that were hurriedly processed through the courts in the emotionally charged atmosphere following upon the food riots must be thoroughly reviewed to ensure that no miscarriages of justice have occurred. The sentences in these cases must also be carefully scrutinised to ensure that they were fair and not disproportionate, taking into account the all the relevant factors that have a bearing upon sentence, including the fact that the criminal action may have been an expression of anger and frustration about harsh economic conditions. On the other hand, more deterrent sentences are obviously appropriate for hooligans and criminals who simply took advantage of the troubled situation to commit crimes.

Last but certainly not least, mechanisms must be established to ensure that businesspersons who suffered financial loss as a result of the riots receive compensation or at least soft loans to allow them to re-establish their businesses.

There was no response from either the President or parliamentarians, and thus the Human Rights Forum took the step of lobbying the UN Human Rights Committee at its meeting to consider the implementation by Zimbabwe of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. When the Committee produced its final report in September 1998, it made a strong statement endorsing the call by ZHRNF for an independent commission of inquiry. The UN Committee made two specific recommendations in respect of the Food Riots:

16. The Committee expresses its concern over recent reports of excessive use of force by the police and the army during food riots in 1998. The Committee urges that all cases of alleged excessive use of force committed by members of the police or the army be investigated by an independent and impartial body, that action be taken against those officers found to have committed abuses and that compensation be paid to the victims; the State party should report to the Committee thereon. Intensive training and education programmes in the field of human rights for members of the army and law enforcement officials are recommended. The Committee urges that the list of situations in which the use of lethal force is allowed under domestic law be reduced.

30. The Committee requests the State party to ensure the wide dissemination in Zimbabwe of the Covenant, the State party report and the Committee's concluding observations.

There has been no wide dissemination as requested, and since the Government has made no steps to either constitute a commission of inquiry or compensate those who suffered human rights violations, the ZHRNF decided to go ahead and support the request by survivors for civil claims against the Government. To date, 40 suits have been filed against the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army. The Government, through the office of the Attorney-General, has indicated that it will contest all claims.