Contents
Contents ___________________________________________________________________________ 3
Index of Tables______________________________________________________________________ 4
Abbreviations _______________________________________________________________________ 5
Introduction ________________________________________________________________________ 6
1.
Executive Summary___________________________________________________________________ 6
2.
Recommendations ____________________________________________________________________ 8
The SADC Facilitation and the 2008 Election _____________________________________________ 8
1.
The SADC Facilitation ________________________________________________________________ 8
2.
The 2008 Harmonised Elections ________________________________________________________ 11
3.
The Votes, the Delays and the aftermath__________________________________________________ 13
4.
SADC and the Regional Civic Responses _________________________________________________ 16
5.
The SADC Mediation: Where to? _______________________________________________________ 18
Recommendations __________________________________________________________________ 19
The violence of 2008: an evaluation ____________________________________________________ 21
A. Background _______________________________________________________________ 21
1.
Sources ___________________________________________________________________________ 21
2.
Dangers and difficulties of trying to access or deliver health care ______________________________ 22
3.
Dangers in trying to access information and offer help_______________________________________ 23
4.
Attacks on election officials ___________________________________________________________ 23
5.
Deaths ____________________________________________________________________________ 24
6.
Abductions and disappearances_________________________________________________________ 24
7.
Assumption of impunity ______________________________________________________________ 27
8.
Reaction of police to events____________________________________________________________ 27
B.
Perpetrators _______________________________________________________________ 28
1.
The role of the Joint Operational Command _______________________________________________ 28
2.
MDC as perpetrator: _________________________________________________________________ 30
3.
ZANU PF Members of Parliament:______________________________________________________ 31
4.
Perpetrators - locals __________________________________________________________________ 31
C.
The Violence ______________________________________________________________ 32
1.
Violence over time __________________________________________________________________ 32
2.
Scale of the violence _________________________________________________________________ 35
3.
Geographical distribution of violence ____________________________________________________ 35
D.
1.
The Strategy_______________________________________________________________ 36
Mashonaland: the strategy _____________________________________________________________ 36
2.
Matabeleland: the strategy_____________________________________________________________ 37
E.
Victims___________________________________________________________________ 39
1.
Affiliation of victims _________________________________________________________________ 39
2.
Teachers___________________________________________________________________________ 43
3