Table 9: Perpetrators of violence at homes – 2001 to 2008 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 CIO 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 3 (3%) MDC youth 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 5 (5%) Traditional leader 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 (1%) War veteran 29 8 2 0 0 0 0 8 47 (18%) Youth militia 11 5 1 1 1 0 0 3 22 (8%) 3 12 14 6 1 0 0 28 64 (24%) 20 25 20 5 1 0 0 11 82 (31%) ZNA 0 0 20 1 0 0 0 1 22 (8%) ZRP 3 3 8 2 4 0 0 0 20 (8%) Total: 66 55 69 15 7 1 1 52 266 Percentage: 25% 21% 26% 6% 3% 0% 0% 20% ZANU PF youth ZANU PF supporter Totals These three main groups of perpetrators frequently worked in concert according to the reports, as illustrated by the following case from 2008. The female victim, the wife of an MDC activist, reports that her home was set on fire by ZANU PF youths who were looking for her husband. When she informed them that he was not at home, they then ordered her to take all her furniture out of the home and they set the home and food store on fire. They ordered the victim to leave the village. She then fled to Harare with her children. 4. Conclusions It is worth commenting at the outset that these bald statistics cannot hope to convey the full extent of the trauma suffered by the children involved, but the very brief illustrative cases do give an impression. 446 individual reports do, however, give a reasonable sample to examine trends in relation to children, and the three categories show great similarities in both the kinds of violations inflicted on children and the perpetrators involved. It seems evident from the data examined that very young children, many under 5 years and, certainly given the large number of primary schools, young children anyhow, were witnessing serious violence, and mostly to their caretaking adults. They are not immune from direct violence and 17% of the sample was reported to have been assaulted: this is a very serious finding and clearly this needs far more attention than has been evident from the reporting to date. The data relating to the witnessing of human rights violations indicated that there was a much greater risk of children witnessing violence and experiencing very traumatic events such as having their homes destroyed, becoming seriously impoverished through the theft or destruction of the family’s possessions, and then being displaced from their community, probably ending up as internally displaced. It is not clear from these reports whether such displacement has been permanent or whether families were able to return to their communities, but even such a temporary traumatic displacement can cause emotional distress and possible psychological impairment. 17