34
were a significant proportion of the overall electorate: about 1 million of a supposed 4.5 million
voters.
Table 19
Rank order of violations for farmers and farm workers.
Farmers
Workers
Abduction
12
14
Assault
6
7
Death Threat
7
8
Denial of food
17
5
Disappearance
16
15
Displacement
3
2
Forced attendance at Zanu(PF) meetings
4
3
Forced to join Zanu(PF)
2
4
9
12
Held hostage
Intimidation of key workers
17
9
Maiming/killing of pets
10
18
Maiming/killing of wildlife
Murder
Political intimidation
Rape
Torture
5
18
13
17
1
1
14
16
8
10
Unlawful arrest
11
11
Unlawful detention
14
13
Youth forced to join Zanu(PF)
17
6
The patterns of violations were largely similar for the two groups, 43 as was seen earlier, and can
be seen more clearly in Table 19 above, but there were also some clear differences, and this
speaks to different strategies. The major finding is related to the types of violations that are seen
in other reports as being associated with elections and seem to have little relationship to land per
se. Political intimidation, being forced to join the Zanu(PF) party or to attend Zanu(PF) meetings,
and having young persons forced to join Zanu(PF) all have more to do with elections.
It was also significant that farmers were, per population size, to have reported gross human
rights violations – experience abductions, assaults, death threats, being held hostage, murder,
rape, torture – than their workers [see Table 9 above]. Overall, the data on violations are
strongly suggestive of a systematic campaign as opposed to random violence as is claimed by the
Zimbabwe government, and, of course, torture is a very strange association to find with land
reform.
43
The rank order frequencies were highly correlated for the two groups [0.43; p=0.01].
A Preliminary Report on Human Rights Violations on Commercial Farms, 2000 to 2005.
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