Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum: Report on violence against peaceful protestors in Harare 1. Background 1.1 Increase in violence As Zimbabwe moves towards the holding of a general election, which, according to President Mugabe, will be held in May 2000, the political situation has become increasingly troubled and violent. There have been violent clashes between supporters of the ruling party, ZANU (PF) and the main political opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Additionally raiding groups consisting of some war veterans, but mostly of men and women who were too young to have taken part in the liberation struggle, have invaded numerous white owned farms. Regrettably, the President and other ZANU (PF) leaders have instigated much of the violence perpetrated by ZANU (PF) supporters or at least have condoned it. 1.2 The referendum and its aftermath As regards inter-party violence, although MDC supporters have on some occasions taken violent action against ZANU (PF) members, whether with or without provocation, the majority of the instances of violence and intimidation seem to have been perpetrated by ZANU (PF) supporters. There have been concerted attempts by members of the ruling party and high-ranking police officers to demonise the Movement for Democratic Change and depict them as a party intent on using violence and intimidation to come to power. The State media have given great prominence to violence allegedly committed by MDC supporters whereas they have played down violence allegedly committed by ZANU (PF). 1 1.3 Co-option of the veterans and farm invasions In order to trace the build up of this violence in Zimbabwe, it is necessary to go back to the events surrounding the holding of the referendum held in mid-February. (12 and 13 February). A government Commission had drawn up a draft constitution. Before putting the draft to a referendum, government made various amendments to the draft. The most important amendment was to amend the land acquisition provision so as to provide that if Britain did not pay into a fund for land acquisition, the government could proceed to expropriate land without compensation. The government then endorsed this constitution and joined with the Constitutional Commission in campaigning for its acceptance by the people. Especially towards the end of its publicity campaign, the executive of the Constitutional Commission used racist and politically inflammatory rhetoric. It alleged that persons opposed to the draft constitution were sell-outs and puppets of their colonial masters and that the whites, who were reactionary and racist, were campaigning against acceptance of the draft out of self-interest. When the majority of the voters rejected the draft, the executive of the Constitutional Commission and various government officials alleged that whites had been instrumental in the rejection of the draft constitution. It was alleged that the whites had voted in large numbers and white farmers had intimidated their workers into voting against the draft. To start off with the President seemed prepared to accept the will of the people expressed in the referendum. He publicly stated that government would accept the referendum result. This statement was, however, only the calm before the storm. As time went on it was clear that government was certainly not going to accept the referendum result as regards the land issue. There was also a welter of recriminations against whites, especially white farmers. Recently, for instance, President Mugabe said that the whites were determined to fight against ZANU (PF) and the President declared that the fight was on against them and that they would not win the fight. If they aligned themselves with the MDC they would be treated as MDC and MDC would never win the election. 2 Other members of the ruling party made statements in which they have tried to generate anti-white sentiment. The conditions for a major escalation of violence in Zimbabwe were created by the fateful decision by the ruling party to co-opt the war veterans to spearhead their election campaign. The ruling party announced that the war veterans would help with its election campaign. The war veterans were allocated Z$20 -2-