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Political Violence Report - December 2008
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
February 13, 2009

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Overview

From the beginning to the end of 2008, Zimbabwe's political terrain was defined by the violent preparations and anticipation for the watershed 29 March Harmonized Elections and its bloody aftermath which culminated in the bloodier 27 June Run-off election. Events after the failed Run-off election were marked with high tension and more politically and state sponsored violence up to the end of year as this report will chronicle. It seemed the country was now involved in some kind of internecine war that was meant to determine the outcome of the elections and how Zimbabweans were to choose a government to lead them.

The violent anticipative mood for the elections started as early as January 2008, with marked tensions between the ruling ZANU PF party led by President Robert Mugabe and its nemesis the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Marked inter-party political violence occurred in most urban areas in January, February and March. More overt violence reared its ugly head, in April soon after the plebiscite when ZANU PF realized it had lost the election. The violence showed no let up until after the botched 27 June Run-off election which Robert Mugabe won after a one-man race when Morgan Tsvangirai had pulled out, citing violence. From then on, political developments such as the signing of the 21 July Memorandum-of-Understanding and the subsequent signing of the 15 September Global Political Agreement between the three political parties seemed to define the low violence levels until in December when it was apparent that the talks were not going anywhere. The year ended on a high security note when the CIO embarked on an orgy of abductions and torture of civic society leaders, staff and opposition party members up to until the end of December 2008.

Cumulative totals for January 2008 - December 2008 from the victims were recorded by the Human Rights Forum were 6 politically-motivated rape cases, 107 murders, 137 abductions/kidnappings; 1 913 cases of assault; 19 cases of disappearance; 629 of displacements and 2 532 violations on freedoms of association and expression.

In this report for 2008 there are certain trends and characteristics which have been attendant on the incidents reported to the Human Rights Forum which rebut the denials by ZANU PF that in most instances the violence that was reported was between over zealous youths and villagers. To the contrary, the information and evidence that is in the possession of the Human Rights Forum, points to a situation of an organized and well-orchestrated plan of action and collusion between private individuals and state security institutions to annihilate the MDC party structures countrywide so as to instill fear in the electorate during the two elections and to consolidate lost legitimacy and retain political incumbency. Furthermore and surprisingly, the violence in April and thereafter was largely confined to areas where ZANU PF won more seats for Parliament causing the Human Rights Forum to conclude that the violent retribution was because of President Mugabe's dismal showing in the Presidential elections.

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