The violence also prevented local farmers from tending their farms and preparing for the 2007-8 planting season. A farm manager in Chegutu, Mashonaland West, told Human Rights Watch, “During the election period just before the run-off, ZANU-PF supporters came and raided the farmworkers’ farms and took all of their maize stock. They came on June 18, about 30 of them, all wearing ZANU-PF tee-shirts.”25 Another farmer in Chegutu told Human Rights Watch that “Instead of spending time on our farms to prepare for the rainy season we were forced [by ZANU-PF] to spend days attending political meetings. The political violence did not help as many of us were forced to flee our homes and leave our farms.”26 In its June 2008 report on the post election violence, Human Rights Watch highlighted how the government of Zimbabwe bore by far the greatest responsibility for the widespread violence, including looting of property and food reserves, which took place around the country.27 The report also highlighted how the Zimbabwe police had failed to investigate the thousands of cases of violence perpetrated by ZANU-PF officials, state-sponsored groups, and the security forces, and how not a single perpetrator from these groups had been brought to justice. The UN’s Zimbabwe 2009 Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) document also found that the impact of humanitarian agencies’ long period of absence from the field, partly due to the violence, had a “detrimental impact on the food security situation in 2008 and hindered the collection of first hand information on the real needs of communities and gaps in the humanitarian response.”28 Corruption and Discriminatory Government Policies on Food Three economists told Human Rights Watch that protracted and endemic corruption within ZANU-PF has led to a situation of acute economic disparity.29 They add that a very few individuals have been acquiring vast wealth while the majority of the population (over 90 25 Human Rights Watch interview with farm manager, Mashonaland West, November 19, 2008. 26 Human Rights Watch interview with farmer, Mashonaland West, November 19, 2008. 27 Human Rights Watch, “Bullets for Each of You”. 28 UN Consolidated Appeal Process for Zimbabwe 2009, http://ochaonline.un.org/AppealsFunding/CAP2009/tabid/5120/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed January 12, 2009). 29 Human Rights Watch interviews with economists, Harare, November 16–26, 2008. See also Transparency International, “Zimbabwe: Country Study Report 2006/07,” http://www.transparency.org/regional_pages/africa_middle_east/studies_and_reports#nis (accessed December 4, 2008). Crisis without Limits 14