“Reconciliation is the only solution for that country to have assured stability, peace and progress.”71 As currently constituted, any national healing process that does not address issues of justice, accountability for past abuses, impunity, and redress for victims weakens the country’s ability to end the cycle of impunity and violence. The power-sharing government should take the lead in ending abuses and impunity by putting in place mechanisms to ensure that those who have committed abuses in the past and those who continue to do so, are held to account for their crimes. With a referendum and elections proposed for the coming year, the current atmosphere of impunity raises the specter of further violence, not only committed by the same perpetrators, but by the targets of violence as well. Local human rights activists have argued that the lack of accountability for serious crimes that took place in 2008 could lead to acts of revenge by victims. Rashid Mahiya, the director of Heal Zimbabwe Trust, an organization which works with victims of political violence, told Human Rights Watch, “There should be a consequence for committing a crime. If people don’t feel this they will find another form of justice and it may not be within the law.”72 71 David Smith, “Morgan Tsvangirai praises Robert Mugabe ‘the hero,’” The Guardian (London), September 16, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/morgan-tsvangirai-praises-robert-mugabe (accessed October 21, 2010) 72 Human Rights Watch interview with Rashid Mahiya, Harare, September 9, 2010. 37 Human Rights Watch | March 2011