Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum CHAPTER FIVE VIOLATIONS OF POLITICAL RIGHTS BEFORE AND DURING THE ELECTION ‘A peaceful political environment is an environment where political contestants are free to campaign for voter support, free to express themselves and make their views known to the electorate without fear of any intimidation, suspension or expulsion from their party, or victimisation of one kind or another.’lix Those who were killed ‘were killed mostly because they had dared to believe that they had an inalienable right to campaign for and support any party of their choice without endangering their lives in the process’.lx Violence as a Political Toollxi The political violence started before the Referendum, but was deployed as systematic political strategy in the run-up to the Parliamentary elections. In the two months before 24-25 June, political violence targetted especially white farmers and black farmworkers, teachers, civil servants and rural villagers believed to support opposition parties. Homes and businesses in both urban and rural areas were burned and looted. The Daily News Harare editorial offices were bombedlxii and a subsequent bomb threat traced to Zanu-PF headquarters. Opposition organisers were killed, kidnapped and tortured. Nyamapanda border post was closed for two days as civil servants fled Zanu-PF supporters. Over 500 rural schools were closed for longer as teachers, among over 10 000 refugees, fled to the relative safety of towns. Bindura University was closed by a student boycott after ZanuPF members were asked to produce a list of MDC supporters and one MDC supporter was kidnapped and assaulted by Zanu-PF members posing as MDC. Independent journalists experienced grave difficulty in covering violence in areas controlled by Zanu-PF, but when they did, reported military planning and co-ordination of logistics for the farm invasions. ‘The violence and intimidation surrounding the land issue … [took] on a definite political nature.’lxiii ‘There was a general fear of the war veterans and their capacity to instigate and inflict violence and intimidation on the population. They seemed to be moved from area to area with the aim of spreading fear. There were allegations that they were paid and many admitted they were not war veterans.’lxiv All-night Zanu-PF ‘political re-education’ meetings (reminiscent of the wartime pungwe) brutalised those forced to attend. It was widely feared that the executive was looking for an excuse to declare a state of emergency and postpone the elections.lxv The MDC warned that if presidential powers were used to postpone the election, it would challenge such use as anti-constitutional. Its supporters increasingly retaliated against Zanu-PF attacks. Zanu-PF itself accused the MDC of trying to render elections impossible, but was accused by all other parties of fomenting the vast majority of the violence. It refused to sign a multi-party code of political conduct outlawing violence and failed to attend meetings organised by church leaders to curb the violence. Death threats were received by numerous activists, including Morgan Tsvangirai, Grace Kwinjeh, the Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota, Anglican priest Tim Neill and many farmers, including the MDC candidate for Chimanimani, Roy Bennett, both before and after the police evicted invaders from his farm. Robin Greaves, a Nyamandlovu farmer, was publicly threatened with beheading. The death toll reached over 70, mainly opposition supporters, but included two serving and one retired policemen and over 20 farmworkers. In many cases the police were reported to have looked on, for example as two MDC organisers were petrol-bombed in their vehicle. The government used the Law 27