that the Abuja Agreement was followed in any credible fashion, and, whilst all can still agree that land reform is a key element in the Zimbabwe crisis, there is little evidence to suggest there has been any managed land reform to the benefit of ordinary Zimbabwean citizens for whom such reform is critical. The point to stress here is that, even in respect of a problem that had the support of the Commonwealth, the Zimbabwean Government’s action lacked bona fides and failed to implement an agreement to which it voluntarily acceded. 5.2 Human rights Political violence and associated human rights violations have been shown by all observers to have continued unabated in the period after Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth. There are numerous reports to support this assertion the conclusions of which may be broadly summarized as follows: • • • • • • • • • All reports show that the violence has been disproportionately one-sided, and against the MDC and other groups not supporting ZANU (PF); All reports show that the violence attributed to ZANU (PF) is different to the violence attributed the other groups, both qualitatively and quantitatively; The violence attributed to ZANU (PF) shows evidence of systematic torture, abductions, disappearances, summary executions and extra-judicial killings, while this is very rarely the case with violence attributed to other groups such as the MDC; The systematic torture shows a strong association with officials of the State – members of parliament, the police, the CIO, and other officials – as well as an association with groups closely affiliated to ZANU (PF) – “war veterans”, youth militia, ZANU (PF) youth, ZANU (PF) supporters, ZANU (PF) party officials, etc; The evidence shows plausible allegations of the involvement of senior party and government leaders in the violence and there are many statements from victims implicating such persons; The evidence suggests that the militia have continued to operate with impunity. It also shows a very strong association between the youth militia and torture, and it is not contested that there are training camps for the youth militia or that government funds have been allocated to such training; There is no, or very little evidence of, any attempt by the executive or organs of the State to proactively deal with the violence; The evidence suggests, to the contrary, that there are an enormous number of examples of hate speech, and incitement to violence and lawlessness by virtually all members of the executive, the parliament, ZANU (PF) and supporters of ZANU (PF); Finally, there is strong evidence of interference by the State, state officials, and ZANU (PF) supporters, with the judiciary, magistrates and law officers, and that orders of the High Court and Supreme Court have been ignored or flouted. The human rights violations were discussed in detail by Zimbabwean civil society and human rights organizations at a symposium on issues of Transitional Justice in 2003, and the considered views of representatives of more than 70 Zimbabwean organizations were expressed in a Declaration issued at the end of the symposium. In short, the Declaration made the assertion that the human rights violations that have taken place since February 2000 constitute “crimes against humanity”. From 2000 onwards, there have been increasing levels of violence resulting 10