Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Report — Of Stuffed ballots and Empty Stomachs who voted for us and our election agents. The attacks started on the Sunday after the last result was announced. People have fled. Others are missing and no one knows what has happened to them.”79 The spokesman for the MDC said reprisals were most intensive in rural areas where the MDC had made inroads into ZANU(PF) strongholds.80 Apart from reports emanating from the MDC, a number of non-governmental organizations, such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (NGO Forum), the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), have reported various incidents of this description. On 5 May 2005 the ZLHR issued a public statement in which it said that it was “deeply concerned by the retributions by ZANU(PF) on MDC supporters going on around the country. It seems from the incidents reported so far that the ZANU(PF) supporters have the support of the government machinery”. The April Report of the NGO Forum contains this statement: “The month of April was awash with political violations of human rights including 2 murders. The violations are linked to post election retribution that was occurring throughout the country. Fifty-five displacements were recorded in the month, which exceeded the total number of displacements recorded from January to March viz 21. This contributed to the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Zimbabwe. Throughout the country and particularly in Mashonaland Central Province, people were being chased away from their homes for being either MDC activists or for having been election observers or MDC polling agents. A number of people who reported to the police claimed that they were told, in essence, that it was better for them to leave their place of residence because the police could not help them.” The NGO Forum provides this table of incidents reported to it from January to April 2005: January Assault February March April Total 17 54 259 59 389 Abduction/kidnapping 2 3 6 2 13 Attempted murder 0 0 0 0 0 Death threats 1 0 1 3 5 Disappearance 0 0 0 0 0 Displacement 17 1 3 55 76 Freedom of expression/ association/ movement 31 57 268 112 468 79 80 Report of Institute for War and Peace Reporting 8 April 2005. Zimbabwe Standard 8 May 2005. 29