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Heroism in the Dock: Does testifying help victims of organised violence and torture? A pilot study from Zimbabwe
Amani Trust
February 28, 2002

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Introduction
This monograph focuses on the effects upon the victims of human rights violations from testifying in the election petitions that took place in the period following the June 2000 Parliamentary elections. The General Election marked the first time a strong opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had challenged the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu (PF)) in the political arena. In the General Election the MDC won 57 out of 120 contested seats but the price paid for these democratic gains was high. This was perhaps the most violent election in Zimbabwe's history, with killings, wide scale torture, threats and intimidation and property damage around the country. The organised violence and torture continued through the various bye-elections held in 2000, 2001, and persisted into the Presidential Election in 2002.

Following the General Election, the MDC brought legal challenges to the High Court of Zimbabwe in 38 constituencies in an effort to contest the election results in those areas. They alleged that the violence perpetrated by Zanu (PF) agents, with the knowledge or active participation of the Zanu (PF) candidate at the time, unfairly affected the outcome of the vote in these constituencies, and thereby violated the Electoral Act of Zimbabwe. The MDC asked in their petitions that the results be overturned, and that elections be held again in these 38 constituencies. The MDC additionally requested that, if any member of parliament was found guilty of election misconduct, that member be rendered ineligible to run for public office for five years.

The trial of 39 cases (Zanu (PF) submitted one case as the petitioner) began in February 2001, and, by December 2001, 15 petitions had been heard by a High Court Judge, and eight cases cancelled or withdrawn. First hand testimony was documented from all the election petition cases that were heard in the High Court of Zimbabwe from February to October 2001.

This present monograph concentrates upon the effects upon the witnesses who testified in the petitions. Most of these witnesses were victims of organised violence and torture during the June 2000 General Election. They were either primary victims - those who were direct victims of organised violence or torture - or secondary victims - family members or witnesses to direct violence. They were followed up after they had given their testimony, and a detailed interview conducted on their experiences during and after testimony in the High Court.

This monograph, and the others in this series, are based on detailed observation of the election petitions held in the High Court of Zimbabwe, as well as testimonies available from victims seen during the General Election and the subsequent bye-elections. A team of researchers attended all the court hearings, making notes of all proceedings, as well as studying the case notes held by the AMANI Trust and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. There are two companion monographs on the violence and on the petitions . As will be seen, these reports corroborate many of the earlier reports of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum , as well as the reports of international human rights organisations.

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