Time for accountability 17 6 Driven deeper into poverty Human rights violations against suspected opponents of ZANU-PF have often had socio-economic dimensions. For example, in 2005, more than 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods when the government carried out a programme of mass forced eviction. Members of the security forces played a significant role in the planning and execution of this campaign, known as Operation Murambatsvina. In particular, it has been alleged that members of the Joint Operations Command played a key role in planning and coordinating the mass forced evictions. Despite a critical report by the UN,25 most of the victims were left to find their own solutions. Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle (restore order) – the government’s supposed effort to give the victims of forced evictions some recourse – was exposed by Amnesty International as a public relations exercise rather than a genuine attempt to provide reparations. 26 The government built far fewer houses than it destroyed and the new houses were not allocated to victims of mass forced evections, but rather to soldiers, civil servants and people with political connections who were not necessarily affected by the evictions. Most of the people displaced by the forced evictions continue to live in destitution. They have not been compensated for their losses and the Zimbabwean authorities have not been held to account. No investigations have been carried out and there have been no prosecutions for acts of violence by members of the security forces and others in the context of these forced evictions. Use of food as a political tool Over the years, the government has used food as a tool to demand loyalty in rural areas. It has repeatedly employed traditional leaders and local ZANU-PF activists to deny suspected opponents of the party access to cheap or relief maize, the staple food. It has permitted discriminatory distribution of maize in rural areas as part of its strategy to retain ZANU-PF’s rural support base. Since 2000, Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of maize sold through the state-owned Grain Marketing Board being used as a tool to silence perceived opponents.27 Through its tight control over traditional leaders, who in turn have control over development processes in rural communities, the government managed to influence humanitarian operations to ensure that opponents of ZANU-PF were excluded, even in donor-funded humanitarian programmes. Forced to feed government supporters Amnesty International is also concerned about ZANU-PF’s practice of collecting money from communities to fund its local activities. Rural people are often made to make substantial financial contributions towards ZANU-PF activities, taking away Amnesty International AI Index: AFR 46/028/2008