violence, amongst other things, in the reasons for their conclusions. The Botswana government stated unequivocally that it would recognise Robert Mugabe as President. Two other reports also suggested that the violence continued after the Presidential Run-off, and certainly indicated that the scale of the violence up to the time of signing the MoU was considerable. Based on 3,320 interviews, the Solidarity Peace Trust reported that there was a steady increase in the number of cases from April through to June, with June showing the highest number of cases, and a total of 107 murders reported, mostly associated with abductions and torture. 5 The report also showed clearly the focused nature of the violence, with members of the MDC the overwhelming victims [61%], and the perpetrators being massively ZANU PF Youth, ZANU PF supporters, and “war veterans”. However, state agents – police and army – were mentioned in a distressingly large number of cases. The second report, from the Zimbabwe Peace Project [ZPP], indicated a total of 16,400 cases since January 2008, with 15,122 falling since March 2008.6 ZPP reported 157 murders since January 2008, with 124 of these occurring in the months of May [47] and June [77]. A subsequent report from the ZPP indicated that the overall figure for 2008 had risen to 20,143 by the end of August.7 Figure 1 Monthly totals, violation totals & Average monthly totals of human rights violations. [Source: Human Rights Forum, Monthly Political Violence Reports, Abductions arrest & detention Assault attempted murder death threats disappearance displacement Freedoms Murder Political discrimination property violation Rape school closure Torture Total Monthly average: 2001 116 2002 223 2003 52 2004 62 2005 18 2006 11 2007 19 2008 117 Totals 670 0 274 86 627 388 389 401 1286 530 2611 486 2766 865 430 1723 9053 4479 0 0 0 0 12 34 2 12 28 11 39 61 10 80 4 208 809 10 10 35 0 189 760 3 1 9 0 609 1036 4 3 7 0 55 1866 2 0 7 0 0 3500 3 8 47 0 627 2161 107 34 197 32 1699 10183 224 194 388 450 514 476 288 980 2379 5669 356 0 0 903 2285 807 7 45 1172 3155 153 6 1 497 3295 132 3 0 389 2887 61 4 0 136 4170 55 1 0 366 5751 16 0 0 603 8759 381 6 26 699 8711 1961 27 72 4765 39013 380.8 262.9 274.6 240.6 347.5 479.3 729.9 1088.9 618 5 See Solidarity Peace Trust (2008), Desperately Seeking Sanity: What Prospects for a New Beginning in Zimbabwe? 29 July 2008. DURBAN: SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST. 6 See ZPP (2008), Run up to 27 June 2008 Presidential Run Off Election. July 25, 2008. HARARE: ZIMBABWE PEACE PROJECT. See ZPP (2008), September Report on Politically-Motivated Human Rights and Food-Related Violations. HARARE: ZIMBABWE PEACE PROJECT. 7

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