Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Order (Maintenance) Act to prohibit the bussing of political supporters to all rallies except those addressed by party presidents. UP candidate for Mkoba (in Gweru), Maxwell Mupukuta, withdrew as a result of the violence practised on opposition supporters. Opposition marches as well as rallies were broken up by Zanu-PF supporters with the assistance of ‘war veterans’ camped at the party’s headquarters. Sometimes the MDC retaliated, notwithstanding advice not to. Those arrested as MDC supporters sometimes turned out to be Zanu-PF supporters in stolen teeshirts. Genuine MDC supporters were often released without charge for lack of evidence (eg. in Kwekwe). But there were signs that the violence was counter-productive for Zanu-PF. One voter reflected the general mood, in stating that he felt only ‘anger towards the party which has turned me into a beggar’.lxvi Although over 10 000 fled the rural areas, those voters who sat out in neighbouring countries the expected escalation in violence over the election were widely condemned as abandoning their national duty. Numerous secondary schools, including two in Harare’s high-density suburbs, were ‘invaded’ by Zanu-PF, either to instruct pupils to warn their parents against voting for opposition parties, or to intimidate teachers thought to be aligned with the MDC. Over 550 rural schools were disrupted in the second term, as teachers, pupils and rural opposition members fled violence, intimidation and ‘political re-education’. Over 600 abductions, 40 entailing torture, were reported. Within 10 days of the election, their identity documents were removed from large but unknown numbers of rural voters, especially in Mwenezi, by ‘war veterans’ and Zanu-PF supporters. Without their IDs, people were unable to vote. Following the invasion of commercial farms, which often entailed violence, tourist facilities, mines, quarries and towns were targetted and the forms of violence also ramified. Farmers, farmworkers, political activists and civil servants were assaulted. Farmers’ and farmworkers’ housing and property were destroyed. Farming operations were materially affected and resulted in owners fleeing, workers not being paid and crops (including tobacco) not being processed and delivered to market. The country’s largest tomato producer was put out of business and the resulting shortage immediately led to a quadrupling of prices. Tauya Coach Services bore MDC stickers and had two buses destroyed and two damaged by arson. Chako Bus Company was also threatened. Zanu-PF recurrently accused the MDC of being a black front for white political activists and financial backers and reportedly brought considerable pressure to bear on white farmers to cease bankrolling the MDC, not least through the farm invasions and the killing of three white farmers who were MDC activists. The Organisation of African Unity expressed concern about the use of inflammatory language. Churches left it very late to condemn the violence publicly, but eventually all did so in the week before polling, together with diplomats from the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. The violence was countrywide, but particularly recurrent in Mazowe and Shamva in Mashonaland Central, Murehwa, Mudzi and Goromonzi in Mashonaland East, Hurungwe in Mashonaland West, Mberengwa and Gokwe in the Midlands, Mwenezi in Masvingo, Mutasa and Chimanimani in Manicaland, around Plumtree in Matabeleland South, and Harare’s Budiriro suburb. By mid-year, insurance companies had (illegally) withdrawn all cover, not merely from farmers, for riot and civil commotion, a withdrawal that was regularised from the start of 2001. The EU observer mission reported 248 incidents of pre-election violence, only 10 of which were directly witnessed. 85 resulted in injury. 155 involved physical violence, including enforced attendance at rallies, and another 56 entailed psychological intimidation. EU report findings Zanu-PF 28 MDC