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Post-election violence leads to new waves of displacement in Zim: Report
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
May 07, 2008

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Following the elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2009, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has unleashed a campaign of state-sponsored terror to punish MDC activists and voters who are suspected of having voted for the opposition. The violence is resulting in new waves of internal displacement in Zimbabwe.

On 29 April, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said, "Because of the increasing violence and the number of displaced people fleeing their homes to other places, there is a serious humanitarian crisis." (IRIN, 30 April 2008).

Below is a list of documented instances of new displacement in Zimbabwe from 30 April - 7 May 2008.

Information on internal displacement caused by post-election violence in Zimbabwe from 29 March to 24 April 2008 can be found here, and information on developments from 25- 29 April can be found here.

• The Solidarity Peace Trust has released a video about post-election violence in Zimbabwe, with images of displaced communities, and several individuals testifying on camera about having been displaced by violence or threats of violence on the part of ZANU-PF supporters or so-called war veterans (Solidarity Peace Trust, 28 April 2008).
• A report released by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) on 30 April states that in the night of 16 April, the houses of nearly 20 families were set ablaze in in Pondoro Village, in Ward 2 of Pfungwe rural area, by ZANU-PF militias who accused the families of being opposition supporters. (ZimRights, 30
  April 2008)
• On 1 May, Voice of America quoted sources in Mashonaland Central province as saying that violence continued to escalate there as ZANU-PF youth militia members burned the houses of opposition members. VOA's sources said that homes were torched in Bushu, in Shamva South constituency, and at Butter Farm, in Bindura North constituency. (Voice of America, 1 May 2008)
• On 2 May, The Times reported that hundreds of rural schools are struggling to reopen at the start of the new school term after teachers fled a campaign of violence against local activists for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and officers for the Zimbabwe election commission. Thousands of teachers took employment as election officers during the school break to supplement their shrinking incomes. In the past week at least 100 teachers, including several school principals, have been arrested on suspicion of electoral fraud. (The Times, 2 May 2008)

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