A highly contentious issue has been the effects and causes of Operation Murambatsvina15 wherein the government demolished slums and other living quarters for people countrywide. The operation conducted by the army, police and other government agents caused severe human rights violations attracting international condemnation. According to the United Nations Special Envoy Report16 an estimated 700, 000 people in the cities lost 'either their homes, their sources of livelihood or both', while a further 2.4 million people were affected indirectly. Members of the security apparatus and militias lack confidence about the consequences of any change in regime, including exposure to prosecutions and retribution. In addition, state institutions for protecting or remedying abuses are weak or directly implicated in past and ongoing violence. Various elements of society may be marginalized, indifferent, unaware, insecure, afraid of discovery, suffering directly, desiring answers, accountability, or simply practical relief. There may also be high levels of denial or inability to know the truth, and especially if there is a change, there may be a desire for self-help retribution and settling of scores, where the truth of the violence is well known, its doers identifiable. The possibility also exists that the legacy of decades past unresolved violence might rise and manifest. 15 See two different reports by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, 'Order Out of Chaos or Chaos out of Order? A Preliminary Report on Operation Murambatsvina', June 2005 and 'The Aftermath of a Disastrous Venture: A Follow Up Report on Operation Murambatsvina', August 2005. 16 See United Nations' Report of the Fact Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to assess the scope and Implementation of Operation Murambatsvina by the United Nations Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues on Zimbabwe Mrs Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, July 2005. 15