Table 7: Perpetrators of political violence in schools – 2001 to 2008 CIO MDC youth War veteran Youth militia ZANU PF youth ZANU PF supporter ZNA ZRP Total: Percentage: 2001 0 0 13 2 7 2002 2 0 8 2 10 2003 0 0 1 1 1 2004 0 0 0 0 1 2005 0 0 0 0 3 2006 0 0 0 0 0 2007 0 0 0 0 0 2008 0 0 2 2 12 Totals 2 (2%) 0 24 (25%) 7 (7%) 34 (35%) 8 0 1 31 32% 8 1 1 32 33% 1 0 2 6 6% 0 0 0 1 1% 1 0 1 5 5% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 21 22% 20 (21%) 3 (3%) 6 (6%) 96 Interestingly, 2000, 2002, and 2008 were the most serious years for schools where perpetrators could be identified, suggesting, as these were all election years, a very specific focus on schools, pupils, teachers, and obviously the community surrounding the school. ZANU PF Youth, ZANU PF supporters, and war veterans are the most frequently mentioned perpetrators. As this case below (from 2008) illustrates, ZANU PF Youth, who are the most commonly identified perpetrators in the Human Rights Forum data, have been a significant source of the problems afflicting school, and particularly during the elections in 2000, 2002, and 2008: ZANU-PF youths from Mahusekwa reportedly besieged 2 schools in Chihota, Marondera District, and chased away 9 teachers, accusing them of backing the MDC. Eight of the 9 teachers who fled said they would not return to the schools alleging that their lives were in danger. Mashonaland East Provincial Education Director in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture is said to have confirmed that 7 of the teachers have since been redeployed to schools in Murehwa, Seke and Marondera. 3.3 Violence at families’ homes This category was included, as was indicated earlier, because of the presumption that any attack on a family at home, even though primarily aimed at the adults, would most probably involve children as witnesses of violence. As pointed out in Section 6, the cases in this category are distinguished from the cases where children are directly identified in the violation. 3.3.1 Violations Violations taking place at family homes showed the highest frequency of the three categories, with 254 cases being identified from the Human Rights Forum reports. As can be seen from Table 8 (over), these were most frequent in 2008, but were also more frequent in 2000, 2002, and 2003 in comparison with other years, and three of these years were election years. The most common violations were the witnessing of violence (29%), followed by displacement (27%). 15