Victims of police brutality and other human rights abuses do not report such acts because they have no faith that action will ever be against the perpetrators.
This is according to a report compiled by non-governmental organisation, Sesotho Media and Development and funded by the European. It was commissioned in 2021 and will run until 2025.
Just last month, Amnesty international urged Prime Minister Ntsokoane Matekane to move swiftly to honour his promise to ensure the realisation of human rights, including tackling entrenched impunity for violations of human rights.
The organisation had documented human rights violations committed by police officers in Lesotho, ranging from unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees.
Police brutality is described as the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement. It is an extreme form of police misconduct or violence and is a civil rights violation. It also refers to a situation where officers exercise undue or excessive force against a person.
It is sometimes used to refer to various human rights violations by police. This might include beatings, racial abuse, unlawful killings, torture, or indiscriminate use of riot control agents at protests.
Police brutality is a human rights issue, according to world rights body Amnesty International. At its worst, unlawful use of force by police can result in people being deprived of their right to life. If police force is unnecessary or excessive, it may also amount to torture or other ill-treatment.
It is obvious that police excesses have not escaped the eye of the international community. We, therefore hope the government will heed these calls and that the police will – in the face of global pressure – desist from this barbaric practice.
This would go a long way in rebuilding the imagine of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service’s tattered reputation of brutalising the very citizens it is supposed to be protecting.
