people used to gather under that tree. Three more villagers confirmed the story. • The councillor dragged proceedings on until after 3.00 p.m. At 3.15 p.m., the Forum facilitators were invited to come and address the people. iii. Attempts to address the participants • The local co-ordinator apologised to the participants regarding the confusion. After the introduction, one of the facilitators gave an overview of transitional justice. • He said it was important that societies decide what mechanisms they needed to create sustainable peace in their communities. • He said because of time constraints, he was going to ask that the people go into groups according to interests: the youths, the women, government workers, traditional leaders, business people, farmers and other interest groups present. iv. Refusal and disturbances • One villager asked if the issues had anything to do with the Kariba Draft constitution, to which the facilitator explained that the programme had nothing to do with the Kariba Draft. • One man, who described himself as a politician, said that there would be no groups and that they were not going to give any information unless the facilitators were ready to openly tell the participants that they had solutions to those problems. • The councillor was in agreement with the ‘politician’ and he started chanting a ZANU(PF) slogan. He said the idea of groups was a ‘divide and rule’ tactic made to interfere with their right to speak as a group. • A local activist said that as far as he was concerned, the Global Political Agreement had been signed and as such there was no need to worry about human rights. The political leaders knew what they were doing. • Another activist said that the grouping was meant to force people of different opinions to come together and that would cause ‘a war’. People must be grouped into political parties. • One activist said that the leaders of one of the parties in government were corrupt because they were getting two salaries, another one from unknown sources. • An elderly woman said they had no problems and the facilitators must go back and tell whoever sent them that they had no problems. • Another participant, identified reliably as a former councillor for ZANU(PF), told the gathering that only a few people were blocking progress and preventing others from speaking. He advised the facilitators that when they left they should not conclude that the people had rejected them but that a few misguided people had blocked their views. • The facilitator said that he would ask each particular interest group if it had any issues it wanted to raise, to which a small but very militant grouping shouted “No!” They had no problems. “Did you bring the groups?” another woman asked. • The Councillor started another ZANU(PF) slogan and said that they had a right to speak as one group. He said their only problem was that they had no dairy cows and the recommendation was that they needed dairy cows and assurance that their land would not be taken away. • The facilitator said he was closing the meeting and invited those who needed some literature to collect it. A group of government workers approached the facilitators and 34 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report