4
This monograph is based on detailed observation of the election petitions held in the High Court
of Zimbabwe, as well as testimonies available from victims seen during the General Election and
the subsequent bye-elections. A team of researchers attended all the court hearings, making
notes of all proceedings, as well as studying the case notes held by the AMANI Trust and the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. There is a companion monograph on the court hearings
themselves, and both monographs, together with additional material, will shortly be consolidated
into a book. As will be seen, the report corroborates many of the earlier reports of the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forumi, as well as the reports of international human rights organisations ii.
Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has an unenviable history of organised violence and torture over the past three
decades. This has been well documented by both human rights organisations and historians iii,
and it is not the intention here to summarise this. Here we would wish to point out that the AMANI
Trust has over the past 9 years done considerable work in unravelling the story of torture in
particular. The Trust is in a unique position to comment upon the nature and extent of torture over
the decades, and also to comment upon the long-term effects of torture upon individuals, families
and communities.
This work covers the consequences of the Liberation War of the 1970s iv, the civil war of the
1980sv, the Food Riots in 1998vi, and the current violence. This work has shown that torture
followed by impunity has a long and disgraceful history in Zimbabwe, and also allows us to draw
comparative conclusions about the nature and extent of the current violence.
Setting the Stage for the current Violence
The year 2000 was a critical year for Zimbabwe. In the latter part of 1999, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) was founded, and earlier the National Constitutional Association had
been formed in 1997 out of civil society’s desire to reform the constitution. The MDC was in part
an outgrowth of the NCA, and both groups constituted the first significant opposition to the virtual
hegemony of political power that had been held by Zanu(PF) since 1980. During 1999, there was
escalating conflict between the government and civil society over the direction of the
constitutional process, as well as conflict between the Government and the judiciary following the
abduction and torture of two Zimbabwean journalists.
The new Constitution put forth by the government for endorsement in a referendum was
ultimately rejected by 54 per cent of the electorate. This constitution included a controversial land
clause that made the British government liable for payment for land resettlement, but was
nonetheless rejected by the Zimbabwe electorate. Almost immediately after the referendum,
widespread land invasions took place. ‘War veteran’ militias and Zanu (PF) supporters began to
invade white commercial farms, announcing that they were taking land back for black
Zimbabweans. However, lost in this rhetoric was the issue that land distribution had not been
dealt with in earnest in 20 years. This seemed to be an effective diversion for what was really
happening. Farm invasions were certainly distressing, but the plight of thousands of black farm
workers who suffered during the invasions, and the terror campaign unleashed on the communal
black populace was not publicized internationally to the same degree.President Mugabe, claiming
that he had been betrayed by the black electorate sponsored by whites, allowed farm invasions to
continue, and violence against opposition party members proliferated.
The international spotlight remained largely on the land issue and the plight of white farmers,
ignoring the thousands of black Zimbabweans who were tortured and threatened.
As had been indicated in the Constitutional referendum, that the MDC had garnered tremendous
support, especially in the urban areas, but there were also indications of growing support for the
MDC in the rural areas. Historically, Zanu (PF)’s stronghold was in the rural areas, and it clearly
AMANI Trust: Organised Violence and Torture in the June 2000 General Election in Zimbabwe