Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on pre-election political violence in Mberengwa The declaration of a general pardon for these very serious human rights violations has rightly been condemned by all responsible organisations and a number of international bodies, including Amnesty International. The declaration of such an amnesty is clearly contrary to the intent behind all international human rights conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. Furthermore, torture is proscribed under our own Constitution. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Cases where perpetrator known Contactable Witnesses Legal Assistance As can be seen from the table above, 31% of the sample knew their perpetrators, whilst nearly 90% had witnesses to their ordeals. This means that criminal prosecutions could have been pursued in a significant number of cases, and this was clearly the wish of the people in the sample, where over 70% wished to take legal action against their perpetrators. The general amnesty will be a devastating blow for these victims. It is even more shocking to observe the practical effect of the amnesty. In Mberengwa East a total of 617 allegations of crimes was made by people in the sample group. The amnesty would render 570 cases (92%) ineligible for investigation and prosecution. In addition, it should be borne in mind that, prior to the declaration more than 200 arrests had been made by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. These arrests had considerably restored the increasingly poor reputation of the ZRP amongst the general public. The release of these arrested people will lead to a complete lack of faith y the victims in the criminal justice system. Clearly, the effect of the amnesty, in Mberengwa East, completely subverts all justice, leaving all these victims with only the option of civil suits for damages. This will be an extremely lengthy, and expensive way for very poor people to obtain justice. In many cases the perpetrators will not have the financial capacity to pay appropriate compensation to the victims. Conclusions Politically incited violence and intimidation in Mberengwa during the run up to the June 2000 parliamentary election was clearly meant to have the effect of intimidating people into voting for the ruling party, Zanu (PF). Alternatively, it was meant to instil such fear in the electorate that supporters of the opposition would refrain from voting. It is likely that fear was the reason why 43% of the electorate in Mberengwa abstained from casting their votes. Gross human rights violations occurred and appeared to be encouraged or at least condoned by Government officials. War veterans, members of Zanu (PF) and its supporters seemed to hold the belief that they had the right to infringe on others people’s rights without being held accountable at law. They attacked defenceless persons, including children, terrorising them, forcing them to leave their homes and 12