3
The losses suffered by the farm workers were life threatening. The survey found that about 1%
of displaced farm workers and their family members have died since losing their jobs.
Extrapolated to the entire population of 1 million farmer workers and their families, 10,000
people could have died after displacement from the farms. This is clearly a gross underestimate
and anecdotal evidence from commercial farmers suggests that the figure is considerably higher.
The report finds that the gross human rights violations, and the violations of rights generally,
were much greater than had been previously assumed. It is also evident that the patterns of
violations and those involved in the perpetration of these violations are not commensurate with
conflicts over land between land owners and landless people. Instead the data from the survey
suggests organised appropriation by an elite, as has been widely claimed.
The report concludes that the evidence is strongly suggestive of a systematic campaign, as
evidenced by the failure of the police and civilian authorities to enforce the law and offer the
protection of the law. The report finds that a plausible case can be made for crimes against
humanity being committed during these displacements. There is a compelling need for these to
be investigated and the perpetrators to be charged and tried.
War veterans and members of Zanu-PF were the largest number of perpetrators of the violations,
followed by the police. Other significant perpetrators were found to be members of parliament,
officials from the president’s office, provincial governors, and other government officials. These
findings point to an organized seizure of land planned by officials, not a spontaneous seizure
carried out by landless blacks, as the government claims.
All Zimbabweans have suffered as a consequence of the ill-advised land reform process, which
has placed the economy in a parlous state and created an enormous humanitarian crisis. It
remains the case that there can be no impunity for gross human rights violations ever and hence
there must be some process of accountability for the violations that occurred during the land
reform exercise. Quite obviously this accountability must involve both criminal and civil actions,
and, both groups must be supported in obtaining redress for the violations they have experienced
and the losses they have suffered.
A Preliminary Report on Human Rights Violations on Commercial Farms, 2000 to 2005.