17 sought medical assistance from Amani, it has helped several of ruling party supporters. Apart from negative government perceptions of Amani, another reason why not many ruling party supporters have not approached Amani may be that these persons are often employed by the state and therefore have easier access to state assisted health care. 7.1 Background to the Presidential Election State organized violence increased following the rejection of the Government sponsored constitution in the referendum at the beginning 2000. The violence was initially sporadic and confined to one or two areas at a time but as the 2000 parliamentary elections approached, it became more intense and widespread. The state trained and deployed more people in an effort to control perceived supporters of the newly formed opposition. At first the beatings were random and the perpetrators used crude weapons such as sticks and logs. Later the persons perpetrating the violence became more organised. They started to make use of weapons such as batons, whips and bicycle chains. The use of torture techniques such as electrical shocks, burning and mock executions became more prevalent. By the time the 2000 parliamentary elections took place there were very few parts of Zimbabwe, urban or rural, that had not been subjected to some form of state organized violence. The actual prevalence of violence prior to the 2000 elections was hard to estimate, as many people were too frightened to report the violence. People were unable or unwilling to report the incidents to the police. In a disturbingly large number of cases, the police or the CIO were named by the victims as either being involved in the torture or reluctant to prevent or stop the ill treatment. Many people who were assaulted were unable to afford medical help from the health services and their injuries were thus not documented by medical personnel. Since methods of torture are designed not to leave permanent scarring, this meant that by the time the victims were able to seek medical help, there were few visible scars. Many of the residual injuries seen in were more difficult to establish as directly related to the torture that they had received. However, complaints such as chronic backache secondary to myofibrositis from soft tissue injuries, joint pain as a consequence of being restrained in abnormal positions, and foot pain due to falanga were prevalent. Many of the victims had suffered significant psychological trauma and were suffering from a post traumatic stress disorder. Therefore careful interview technique and examination was required in order to verify the narratives given by the patient. The findings were previously reported in several publications of the Human Rights Forum, and are summarized here. After the June 2000 parliamentary elections, it was established that 39 constituencies had sufficient reasons to challenge the results in the High Court, and a majority of challenges were based on the amount of violence that had occurred in the time preceding the elections. People who had suffered physical beatings and torture were brought to Harare as witnesses, and for many of these victims, it was the first time they were able to report what had happened to them and to seek medical help for their physical and psychological injuries. Amani Trust was involved with the documentation and in organizing treatment for these victims. The Trust was also responsible for providing the necessary counselling prior to testifying in court, and debriefing the victims afterwards. After the June 2000 Parliamentary elections it was hoped that the violence would subside, but as the election petitions and by-elections occurred in the subsequent months, the violence kept appearing, concentrated in the constituency in which there was a direct challenge to the ruling party. Because Amani was increasingly concerned by the evidence of systematic torture, various systems were set up in order to meet the specific medical requirements of victims of organized violence and torture. Initially funding support for the medical treatment was difficult to find, but as more evidence of organized torture and violence was revealed, the donor community was willing to fund the medical requirements of the victims. This meant that Amani was able to establish a comprehensive programme for victims of organized violence and torture. In the beginning all the medical services were rendered to patients only when they reached Harare, but this often meant AMANI TRUST: Beating your opposition. Torture during the 2002 Presidential campaign in Zimbabwe.