A report to IDAF on the situation inside Rhodesia indicates that by August 1979 over 7,000 people were detained incommunicado under the martial law regulations throughout the country. This means that the total number of people detained without charge or trial by the regime is now higher than at any time since the introduction of preventive detention in the late 1950's.
Under the martial law regulations published by the regime in September 1978, a person arrested in a martial law area may be detained by the security forces without charge and on an indefinite basis. Such powers of indefinite detention were previously the prerogative of the Minister of Law and Order. The "security forces" are in fact defined extremely widely in the regulations, to include virtually all civil servants, together with the police and the police reserve (comprised of local white farmers and other civilian volunteers), the army and airforce, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and any persons considered to be "assisting" the security forces - a proviso which appears to include members of the auxiliary forces or private armies, and foreign mercenaries employed as farm security guards or vigilantes.
A martial law detainee may either be held in a special detention camp set up by the security forces for the purpose or in a conventional prison or detention camp "as if he had been detained pursuant to an order issued by the Minister of Law and Order". All that is required in the latter situation is a written order signed by a "member of the security forces" for delivery to the person in charge of the place of detention. Such a detention order cannot be challenged or queried by any court of law. Even if the state of martial law under which it was issued is terminated, it remains in force until formally revoked by the Minister of Law and Order after consultation with the Minister of Combined Operations.
Under martial law, persons arrested and detained without charge cannot even claim the minimal rights available to those detained in the conventional way under the Emergency Powers regulations. A person who has been issued with an indefinite detention order by the Minister of Law and Order has to be brought before a specially constituted Review Tribunal at least once a year to have his order reviewed, and has the right to be legally represented at this. Furthermore, he or she is regularly visited by the International Red Cross. Under martial law, however, there is no provision for indefinite detention orders to be reviewed by any civilian authority, and the International Red Cross has been denied access to martial law detainees.
Persons arrested under martial law can very easily disappear without trace. According to the legal expert Professor Claire Palley, who visited Rhodesia in the weeks preceding the April 1979 elections: "Lawyers who inquire are informed by the security forces that martial law requires no further answer to be given".
Persons detained under martial law are known to be held at Khami Maximum Security Prison, Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and Wha Wha Detention Centre, among other regular prisons.
According to the London Guardian, an estimated 15,000 people have been detained without trial over the 12 months since martial law took effect in September 1978.
