Politically motivated rape has been described as occurring both during the Liberation War of the 1970s as well as during the disturbances in the 1980s, termed Gukurahundi. However, although the many reports and books on the Liberation War do mention rape, there are no systematic reports 45 about the violations overall. In the excellent report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace [CCJP] and the Legal Resources Foundation [LRF] on Gukurahundi, there are many reports of 46 rape, but no systematic analysis of rape. Since 2000, there have been increasing numbers of reports alleging politically motivated rape, but no specific examination of the issue. The most comprehensive and continuous record of human rights violations since 2000 has been the Monthly Political Violence Reports of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum – the Human Rights Forum. Since July 2001, when the first of these reports was issued, the Human Rights Forum has issued a total of 96 monthly reports. These reports detailed a total of 41,428 violations, but only 27 reports of rape. In a report produced ahead of the 2008 Harmonised 47 Elections, rape was only 0.1% of the total number of violations seen to that point. There are different possible interpretations of this very low figure: either politically motivated rape is very uncommon or cases are not being reported to the Human Rights Forum and its members, the latter being the most likely. Similarly low figures for politically motivated rape are evident in the reports of the other major monitoring body, the Zimbabwe Peace Project [ZPP]. An indication can be taken from comparison of the Human Rights Forum and ZPP‟s reports on the violence in 2008, arguably the most violent election in Zimbabwe‟s history. In 2008, monitoring the elections, the Human Rights Forum indicated that politically motivated rape constituted on 0.07% of the total violations reported, whilst the ZPP 48 report that rape was 0.17% of all violations. Here it should be pointed out that the methodologies adopted by the two organizations are different: the Human Rights Forum derives its data from reports made directly by victims to the Forum or its member organizations, whilst the ZPP‟s data derives from a nation-wide network of community activists. However, on face value, this suggests that politically motivated rape has not been common in the past decade, but it is also evident that the reported rates increased as a function of the proximity to the community: 0.07%, the rate from victims reporting to urban-based organizations, increased to 0.17% when the reports emanated from community-based persons. However, allegations about politically motivated rape have been included in a number of other reports. In 2002, the Amani Trust, in a study of 139 displaced commercial farm workers, reported that 4% of the women alleged rape during the disturbance that accompanied the farm invasions, but 49 14% of the sample alleged that they had witnessed rape. It was noteworthy in this report that there were also allegations of sexual abuse by 14% of the sample, reporting incidents where men were forced to simulate intercourse with other men, or to have intercourse with the ground, in front of others including their wives. A subsequent study of commercial farmers and farm workers reported 50 that 7% of farm workers had experienced politically motivated rape. In 2006, two reports were issued that mentioned politically motivated rape. The Human Rights Forum, in a report on gender based political violence, indicated that 6% of the sample of 447 women 51 reported rape. A higher percentage was reported in a study of women seeking asylum in South Africa; politically motivated rape was reported by 15% of the 102 women seen by the Zimbabwe 52 Torture Victims/Survivors Project of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. The 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 See, for example, CCJP, The Man in the Middle: torture, resettlement and eviction ‟ 1975 page 20; CCJP „Civil War in Rhodesia: Abduction, Torture and Death in the Counter-Insurgency Campaign‟. 1976 CCJP & LRF Breaking the Silence-Building True Peace: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands 1980 to 1988 1997 page 13. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, „Can the elections in Zimbabwe be Free and Fair?‟ 2008 page 20. CSVR, „Subliminal Terror? Human rights violations and torture in Zimbabwe during 2008‟ 2009 page 18. See again Amani, „Preliminary Report of a Survey on Internally Displaced Persons from Commercial Farms in Zimbabwe‟ 2002 page 11. Justice for Agriculture & /Research and Advocacy Unit, „Reckless Tragedy: Irreversible? A Survey of Human Rights Violations and Losses suffered by Commercial Farmers and Farm Workers from 2000 to 2008‟ 2008 page 25. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum „A Woman‟s Place is in the Home? Gender Based Violence and Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe‟ 2006 page 10. CSVR , „Women on the run: Women survivors of torture amongst refugees in South Africa‟. 2006 page 7.