Yale Human Rights and Development Journal, Vol. 7 [2004], Iss. 1, Art. 4 2004] Zimbabwean Human Rights Crisis A public strike called by the MDC in March 2003 generated a strong public response and many people stayed away from work for two days. At this time, a notable increase in the number of incidents of torture and physical abuse was recorded by human rights groups. Common among the cases recorded were abductions of people from their homes at night, serious physical mistreatment in homes and in detention, and threats of further harm should the victims report their attacks. Several cases of sexual assault were also recorded at this time, and the numbers of such cases are likely to be significantly higher than actually reported. Zimbabwe's human rights crisis involves the denial of economic rights to the vast majority of the population, in addition to the ongoing violations of civil and political rights. With inflation in 2003 running at an estimated 300 to 500 percent, most families can no longer afford the basic food required for survival. At the beginning of 2003, the United Nations estimated that 7.2 million people were at risk of starvation.'8 Despite this chronic situation, the Zimbabwean government has insisted on the retention of the state's monopoly on the import of maize and wheat, the staple grains. Through its Grain Marketing Board, the government is able to control who among its population is given access to these essential supplies. Numerous reports indicate that this power is regularly abused to deny food to communities considered supportive of the MDC.19 The government also seeks to influence the distribution of food by donor agencies and has prevented food distribution by non-governmental 20 organizations and aid agencies in some areas. Through corruption, mismanagement, and the disastrous implementation of the fast-track land reform program, Zimbabwe's economy, once considered the strongest in Africa, has crumbled, and more than seventy-five percent of the population lives in poverty. Unemployment has risen from thirteen percent in 1980 to eighty percent in 2002. Since independence, life expectancy has gone down by over ten supportive of the opposition. See THE SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST, National Youth Service Training: Shaping Youths in a Truly Zimbabwean Manner, An Overview of Youth Militia Training and Activities in Zimbabwe, October 2000 - August 2003 (2003), at http://www.kubatana.net/docs/chiyou/youth-militia_030905-pix-sml.pdf. 18 United Nations Relief and Recovery Unit, Zimbabwe HumanitarianSituation Report (Jan. 29, 2003), at http://wwww.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896fl5dbc852567ae00530132/b4352487d8368 ba6cl256cbeOO3e3bc3?OpenDocument. 19 In August 2002, one Zanu-PF official noted that Zimbabwe would be better off with only six million people (implying that half of the current population should indeed starve to death), if those six million people were supporters of the liberation struggle (indicating ZanuPF supporters). U.S. Dep't of State, Zimbabwe's Man-made Crisis (Feb. 2003), at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/16501.htm (quoting the Foreign Secretary Didymus Mutasa of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party). 20 For example, in August 2003, the Zimbabwean government released a policy directive that withdrew responsibility from the World Food Programme for the selection of beneficiaries and the distribution of food aid, replacing the agency with local government structures and village authorities. See U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks, ZIMBABWE: UN Forcedto Close ProvincialOffices (Sept. 2, 2003) at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36344. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yhrdlj/vol7/iss1/4 8