Thirdly, as mentioned above, there is the enormous number of reports in the public domain in which the President, Ministers. Members of Parliament, ZANU PF officials, and many others are on record with statements condoning violence, propagating hate speech, and never repudiating any of these, rarely demanding that the ZRP stop the violence, and taking no active steps to create the conditions for a proper election conforming to just the SADC Principles and Guidelines. On the few occasions there have been calls to refrain from electoral violence these have been seen to be a token pandering to observers or more ominously a threat to MDC supporters given the partisan application of the law in this regard. Of course, proving command responsibility this will require a massive change in the current political climate and the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry. However the prima facie evidence is strong, that the violence seen in 2008, between April and June (and even thereafter) was under the control of the government and its agents. Page 36

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