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A report on organised violence and torture in Zimbabwe from 20 to 24 March 2003
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
March 28, 2003

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Introduction
The cases discussed in this document occurred after a successful two day stay-away on 18 and 19 March. This report highlights just a few of the hundreds of cases of victimisation by state agents against individuals who were believed to have organised the stay away.

Zimbabwe has been governed by Zanu PF since independence in 1980. In February 2000, Zanu PF was dealt its first ever defeat after two decades of consolidating power and entrenching its stronghold over Zimbabwe. The government's draft Constitution was rejected by the Zimbabwean people in a referendum, after a concerted campaign by Zimbabwean civil society actors including the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).

Reeling from this defeat, the ruling party launched its violent and chaotic land reform programme, and instigated an organised and carefully planned system of violence directed against perceived dissidents.

This has been characterised by repressive legislation, partisan and brutal policing, politicisation of state security forces including the army, the police and the CIO, the development of non-legislated militia forces, partisan food distribution, harassment of activists, closure of democratic space, intolerance of the independent press and consistent and repeated violations of human rights.

In the past three years, attempts by concerned citizens and civil society organisations to speak out against victimisation and oppression by the regime have been met with resistance and further brutality. The state has developed tactics to suppress dissent, and uses violence and intimidation as its preferred tool to repress pro-democracy voices.

The level of state repression in Zimbabwe has had a tendency to rise and fall with events. For example, the beginning of 2003 witnessed a decrease in organized violence and torture, whereby the majority of the violence perpetrated was by the police on detainees. However at the end of March 2003, a massive upsurge occurred. It is not coincidental that such a rash of violence would begin after the Commonwealth had agreed to postpone any descision on Zimbabwe's suspension until November this year. Perhaps the government believed this gave them another seven months to act with impunity before its human rights record would come under any scrutiny.

However, the most recent wave of violence started after a largely peaceful two day stay-away, organized by the legally elected official opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Individuals believed to be active in the opposition, or whom were suspected of having mobilised support for the stay-away were specifically targeted. A vitriolic speech by Robert Mugabe, on 21 March 2003, given at the graveside of the deceased minister Swithun Mombeshora, further demonstrates that the violence after the stay-away is not accidental. In this speech, Mugabe warned the MDC that, in resisting government through mass action, they were playing with fire, and that "those who play with fire will be consumed by that fire."

In short, the most recent wave of violence, like other acts of political violence in Zimbabwe, are part of an organised, coordinated and targeted campaign meant to terrorise and intimidate any voices of dissent into silence by brutally retaliating against perceived dissidents.

More than 250 people, an unprecedented number, were seen at the emergency departments of a number of hospitals in the capital city, Harare, over a period of four days. This is far greater than any number previously recorded over a similar period of time, even during an election. This is despite the fact that over the past three years, elections in Zimbabwe have been directly linked with a pattern of increased violence. All victims examined by medical personnel during this week's attacks had physical injuries consistent with the weapons used in past cases of torture.

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