Zimbabwe: The Face of Torture and Organised Violence of the scale of human rights violations and one recent report put the figure as high as 300,000 since 200110. Table A Numbers and percentages of human rights violations reported between July 2001 and November 2004. 2001 to 2003 No. % Torture Arrest & detention Property intimidation Political discrimination Freedom of expression/association Assault Abduction/kidnapping Displacement Murder Death threats School closure Disappearance Rape Attempted murder Totals: 2572 1571 1316 1048 860 474 391 219 105 92 46 32 13 12 8751 2001 to 2004 No. % 29 18 15 12 10 5 5 3 1 1 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.1 2742 1960 1461 1593 1620 873 453 408 108 125 46 32 15 20 11456 24 17 13 14 14 8 4 4 1 1 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.2 The effect of adding the 2004 figures to the overall totals changes some of the rankings of the various categories of human rights violations. As can be seen from the Table above, political discrimination and abuses of the freedom of expression and association rise to become joint third in the rankings, whilst murder has dropped: there were 10 documented murders in 2003 and only three in 2004. There was, however, a significant increase in assaults: there were 399 assaults in 2004 alone as opposed to 474 during the whole previous three year period. The importance of torture cannot be minimised, as we pointed out in our previous report, and remains the largest single category even though the number of cases in 2004 reduced the overall percentage from 29% to 24%. 4. Torture, organised violence and elections The evidence cited for the period July 2001 to December 2003 clearly indicated that torture and other human rights violations were most strongly related to elections. It is significant that even though 2004 saw a drop in the number of torture allegations this pattern remains, and the overall conclusion reached in the previous report still holds: at least in overall magnitude, human rights violations increase with elections, and this is still notable in the case of torture. Of the 11,456 human rights violations reported in the period July 2001 to November 2004, 6,030 (53%) are in months in which there were elections; furthermore, this number of 6,030 is generated in only 14 months, whilst the balance is derived from nearly twice that number of months: non-election months generated 5,426 cases from 27 months. In short, over half the cases reported came from only a third of the months in the period reviewed – election months. This clear pattern is illustrated in Figure B below. 10 See Solidarity Peace Trust (2004), "NO WAR IN ZIMBABWE". An account of the exodus of a nation's people, November 2004, HARARE & SOUTH AFRICA: SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST. 8