daily independent newspapers and strangled by the politicization of food handouts which cynically forces voters to choose between their own survival, and by extension their families, and the survival of the ruling party. Pre-Election Violence In a recent series of analyses of the data contained in the Monthly Political Violence Reports of the Human Rights Forum, the Redress Trust points out that, between July 2001 and December 2004, the Forum identified 11,456 cases of gross human-rights violations. Many of these violations involved murder, rape and torture, which was sometimes of a sexual nature. The violence was systemic, co-ordinated and occurred in all constituencies throughout the country, with the rural areas being the worst effected. The violence over the documented period was closely indexed to election periods2 suggesting that it was as much a part of the then election strategy as is its present abatement. Ruling party politicians made numerous inflammatory statements that encouraged violence. Certainly nothing was done to curb its incidence. After investigating the claims made by the Human Rights Forum after the 2000 elections, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled: ….the Government cannot wash its hands from responsibility for all these happenings. It is evident that a highly charged atmosphere has been prevailing, many land activists undertook their illegal actions in the expectation that Government was understanding and that police would not act against them – many of them, the War Veterans, purported to act as party veterans and activists. Some of the political leaders denounced the opposition activists and expressed understanding for some of the actions of ZANU (PF) loyalists. Government did not act soon enough and firmly enough against those guilty of gross criminal acts. By its statements and political rhetoric, and by its failure at critical moments to uphold the rule of law, the Government failed to chart a path that signaled a commitment to the rule of law.3 Although the Zimbabwean Government was angered by this statement, the statement was quite restrained if one considers the following: after each election President Robert Mugabe has granted a blanket amnesty from criminal prosecution for all those involved in pre-election violence, the majority of whom have been his own supporters. The amnesties have not extended to murder, rape or crimes involving theft. This culture of impunity, however, has been extended to such crimes by the more politically expedient method of simply not prosecuting them when they have been committed by ZANU (PF) supporters. There are numerous instances of this tactic, the most notorious being the gruesome murders of two aides to opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai 4. 2 Of the 11,456 human rights violations reported in the period July 2001 to November 2004, 6,030 (53%) are in months in which there were elections; furthermore, this number of 6,030 is generated in only 14 months, whilst the balance is derived from nearly twice that number of months: non-election months generated 5,426 cases from 27 months. In short, over half the cases reported came from only a third of the months in the period reviewed – election months. 3 The African Commission report was accepted by the African Heads of State in Abuja in January 2005. 4 See http://www.hrforumzim.com/evmp/evmpreports/polviolzim000515j.htm#buhera for details of this incident. 3