It is clear from Table 1 that the enormous increase in reports after 2000 shows the international profile that has followed the land invasions and the disputed elections for, although there is a dramatic increase in the number of human rights reports, there is an even more dramatic increase in the number of other kinds of reports. This reflects other aspects of the current Zimbabwe crisis: the violations of property rights, the collapsed economy, the humanitarian crisis, etc. Hazarding an educated guess, the number of reports, both human rights and others, would be even larger if such an exercise were to have included reports since 2004. However, the crisis began with the rejection of the constitution, and the subsequent ”farm invasions”, which is where the story post2000 will begin. 2.4.1 The “Farm invasions” The beginning of the epidemic of gross human rights violations, and especially torture, began in the aftermath of the referendum on the proposed new constitution for Zimbabwe. With the rejection of the government draft, and the clause requiring the United Kingdom to pay reparations for land acquisitions by the Zimbabwe government, the country witnessed a mass invasion of the white commercial farms. The land invasions coincidentally occurred a mere three months ahead of the general election set for March 2000, and were accompanied by extra-judicial killings, abductions, disappearances, torture, rape, and mass psychological torture13. It was apparent to all local human rights groups that the land invasions were a pretext for violent political campaigning, and it came as no surprise that ZANU PF won the election. It was surprise that there had been so much violence in areas that had previously been considered to be “safe” for ZANU PF14. The MDC immediately challenged the results in 38 constituencies, none of which cases saw finality before the next election in 2005, but all of which contained serious allegations of gross human rights violations15. The violence on the commercial farms faded for a short period after the 2000 election but re-emerged with a vengeance as the run-up to the Presidential election in 2002 began. Once again Zimbabwe witnessed gross human rights violations on an epidemic scale, surpassing even the violence seen in 2000, with torture becoming common-place and falanga being reported with increasing frequency. Robert Mugabe “won” the election, with the result being highly disputed, and Western countries wholly rejecting the results. With the withdrawal of bi-lateral and multi-lateral donor support, and the imposition of personal sanctions against selected leaders of ZANU PF, Zimbabwe became a pariah state. The land “problem” was used by all parties as a cause for dispute, but by no party more than ZANU PF, and land became the cornerstone of ZANU PF rhetoric against the West16. The dispute has continued unabated to date, notwithstanding the signing of the Global Political Agreement. However, there have been few reports dealing systematically with the violations against the commercial farmers and the commercial farm workers, but those that have looked at these groups, in non-anecdotal fashion, have shown a very sombre picture17. The most recent report from the Justice for Agriculture Trust [JAG] indicates that there were a minimum of 1.3 million violations against farmers and farm workers between 2000 and 2008, but this could be as high as 4.3 million18. It was calculated that there were an average of 13 violations per person, but torture was much more commonly inflected on commercial farm workers than their employers: 29% as opposed to 9%. If the overall number of violations sounds very high, it should be remembered that the commercial farm worker population was estimated to be around 350,000 families of full-time employees and a further 250,000 seasonal workers and their families, and a very high proportion of these workers and their families lived in the provinces in which plantation agriculture was common. These were also the provinces in which gross human rights violations were frequently reported. Although the existing data on violations on the farms does not allow any inference about the years in which violations took place, it is most probable that there were increased rates of violation during election years, and the next section deals with the picture that pertains to elections. 13 14 15 16 17 18 The term “mass psychological torture” was coined by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims [IRCT] and the Amani Trust to characterise the forced attendance of rural people, both commercial farm workers and residents of the communal lands, at ZANU PF meetings. These meetings were exemplified by threats, beatings, torture, and forced renunciations of allegiance to the MDC. See IRCT (2000), Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe, 6th June 2000, Copenhagen and Harare, COPENHAGEN & HARARE: IRCT & AMANI TRUST; IRCT (2001) Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe, 24th May 2001, Copenhagen and Harare, COPENHAGEN & HARARE: IRCT & AMANI TRUST. See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2001), Politically-motivated violence in Zimbabwe 2000–2001. A report on the campaign of political repression conducted by the Zimbabwean Government under the guise of carrying out land reform, HARARE: ZIMABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. See Amani (2002), Neither Free nor Fair: High Court decisions on the petitions on the June 2000 General Election, HARARE: AMANI TRUST. See Phimister, I., & Raftopoulos, B. (2004), Mugabe, Mbeki and the Politics of Anti-Imperialism, Review of African Political Economy, 101, 127-141; Hammar, A., Raftopoulos. B., & Jensen, S. (2003), Zimbabwe’s Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis, HARARE: WEAVER PRESS. See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2007), Adding Insult to Injury. A Preliminary Report on Human Rights Violations on Commercial Farms, 2000 to 2005. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and the Justice for Agriculture Trust [JAG] in Zimbabwe. June 2007. HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. See also JAG/GAPWUZ (2007), DESTRUCTION OF ZIMBABWE’S BACKBONE INDUSTRY IN PURSUIT OF POLITICAL POWER. A qualitative report on events in Zimbabwe’s commercial farming sector since the year 2000. Report prepared by the Justice for Agriculture Trust [JAG] & the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe [GAPWUZ]. April 2008. HARARE: JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST; JAG/RAU (2008), Land, Retribution, and Elections. Post Election Violence on Zimbabwe’s Remaining Farms 2008. Report prepared by the Justice for Agriculture Trust [JAG] & the Research and Advocacy Unit. May 2008. HARARE: JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST; JAG/RAU (2008), Reckless Tragedy: Irreversible? A Survey of Human Rights Violations and Losses suffered by Commercial Farmers and Farm Workers from 2000 to 2008. Report prepared by the Research and Advocacy Unit [RAU]. December 2008. HARARE: JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST. See again JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST; JAG/RAU (2008), Reckless Tragedy: Irreversible? A Survey of Human Rights Violations and Losses suffered by Commercial Farmers and Farm Workers from 2000 to 2008. Report prepared by the Research and Advocacy Unit [RAU]. December 2008. HARARE: JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST. Page 5