8 of bases operating at any time, but it can be seen that there is a reported increase in the number of bases identified in the reports of victims. There is nearly a four-fold increase in the number of bases from 2000 to 2002, which clearly correlates with the many reports from human rights groups and the increased number of gross human rights violations attributed to the youth militia. It is also evident that there is near-national spread of the bases: there are no reports from Matabeleland South, but reports of bases from every other Province in Zimbabwe. Table 4. Number of bases identified by victims of gross human rights violations. 2000 0 3 3 12 4 12 0 0 5 39 Bulawayo Harare Manicaland Mashonaland Central Mashonaland West Mashonaland East Masvingo Matabeleland North Midlands Total: 2002 14 3 2 26 18 21 3 30 6 123 A considerably more sinister change is reflected in the actual positioning of the militia bases, and, as can be seen from Table 5 below, there was a very dramatic shift towards using schools as bases. The use of official buildings – government offices, council offices, etc – and farms does not change very much, but the shift to schools is dramatically large. Table 5. Positioning of militia bases in Parliamentary [2000] and Presidential Elections [2002]. Schools Official building Public building Farm 2000 0 22% 61% 17% 2002 41% 18% 19% 22% The use of schools must be read together with the blatant campaign to target teachers as potential MDC supporters. As was seen in an earlier report of the Forum, teachers became increasingly targets during 2001 and 2002xiii. The effects upon the personal lives of the teachers and their families are only part of the story, as the attacks and subsequent displacement had powerful effects upon their pupils and the communities in which the schools were placedxiv. Closure of schools and the consequent disruption of pupils’ education were one obvious consequence, but added to this was the effect of pupils witnessing the humiliation and torture of their teachers. There was also the consequence of pupils being “taught” political correctness, and the very high possibility of them experiencing considerable fear if their parents were teachers or supporters of the MDC. It is not difficult to appreciate all the possible consequences of targeting teachers and using schools as places of torture and political indoctrination. Whilst this might be acceptable in the old style communist regimes, it is wholly out of place in the modern political dispensations that favour democracy: it is even out of place in the former communist bloc countries! The Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations in the current violence in Zimbabwe.