2 Background to the report 2019 marks the second year since independence in 1980 that Zimbabwe has not had former President Robert Mugabe as the leader of the country after his ouster by the military led by the then Defense Forces Commander, General Constantino Chiwenga in November 2017. The national harmonized (presidential, parliamentary, and council) elections held on 30 July 2018 had 23 presidential candidates including Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and Nelson Chamisa of the main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance. The pre-election period and the voting day were largely peaceful, but post-election violence broke out on 1 August 2018, as the military used excessive and lethal force to crush protests in Harare. Soon after the election, the political atmosphere became tense when both ZANU-PF and MDC Alliance claimed that they had won the elections amid perceived delays in the announcement of presidential election results. When ordinary, including MDC Alliance supporters in Harare took to the streets, the military responded heavy handedly. Uniformed soldiers indiscriminately fired live ammunition and beat up people on the streets, many of whom were not part of the protests. Men clad in military attire were seen indiscriminately shooting and assaulting civilians including those who were not taking part in the protests. Seven people died from gunshot injuries and many others were seriously injured. This post-election violence was shocking but unsurprising. Since 1998, the Forum has documented cases of horrific human rights violations and fatalities perpetrated by state security agents in the course of policing public protests, gatherings, or political meetings. What is concerning is that since that day, the government has sought in vain to dismiss the reports and allegedly tried to tamper with the evidence of the killings by forcing the relatives of the deceased to accept death records stating that the victims had died from knife stab wounds and not gunshot injuries. This pattern of behavior is well documented as part of the government's strategy in avoiding responsibility where its state security officers have committed murder, extra-judicial killings, torture and other crimes while on state duty. During Mugabe's authoritarian rule, serious human rights violations were committed against citizens by various state actors including the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the dreaded Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) as well as the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA). Private bodies and individuals such as the war veterans and ZANU-PF supporters often-times acted with the open approval of the state, with support from the police, to commit serious human rights abuses with impunity. Serious human rights violations ranging from torture, killings, rape, sexual assault, arbitrary arrests and detentions, grievous bodily harm, disappearances, theft, arson, destruction of property were committed with brazen impunity. Mugabe presided over an authoritarian government that terrorized citizens and committed horrific human rights violations. The military labelled Mugabe's ouster from office “Operation Restore Legacy”.⁴ Whatever legacy was restored when Mugabe was removed from office in November 2017, it certainly did not deal with the legacy of human rights violations and related impunity that defined his ⁴ Operation Restore Legacy is a military operation which ended Mugabe's presidency after thirty-seven years at the helm of the country and of the ruling ZANU-PF party. Anti-Impunity Report 7