This paper records AI’s concern about the apparent failure of the authorities in Zimbabwe thoroughly to investigate the death of Captain Edwin Bhundani Nyela, aged 35, in January 1989. His body was found two months after he “disappeared” from an army camp in Hwange; a post mortem examination and an army inquiry attributed his death to suicide. However, it is widely alleged that he was killed because of what he knew about the Zimbabwean National Army’s (ZNA) involvement in poaching and smuggling in Mozambique. AI is also concerned about Lt. Shepard Chisango, who died in custody in 1991; he is also believed to have witnessed the ZNA’s involvement in smuggling. Captain Nyela’s wife has reported harassment due to her efforts to obtain an inquiry into her husband’s death.
