REDRESS/AMANI reform movement increased rapidly, and Zanu-PF tried to seize the initiative by appointing a Government Constitutional Commission 31 leading to a Referendum in February 2000 on the draft Constitution produced by the Government Commission. The result was a historic defeat at the polls as the government’s proposed Constitution, which had been designed to consolidate Mugabe’s position, was rejected. Within days, the Government-organised invasions of white commercial farms began, to be soon followed by widespread and systematic physical attacks on MDC supporters, especially farm workers. This campaign of violence and intimidation was Zanu-PF’s open strategy to avoid another defeat at the polls in the general Parliamentary election set for June 2000. Despite being virtually outlawed in large parts of the country, and despite the widespread use of physical violence against its perceived supporters at the hands of Government-organised so-called war veterans, 32 the MDC won nearly half the seats in Parliament. It immediately launched election petitions in the High Court challenging the results in 37 constituencies on the basis of Zanu-PF’s violence before the general election. Faced with the prospect of losing the general election ex post facto if the courts upheld these election petitions, the Government increased attacks on the then still relatively independent judiciary. It also intensified the violence against MDC supporters and stepped-up the unlawful invasion and occupation of more farms, often accompanied by the ill-treatment and even killing of white owners and black workers. This deliberate strategy continued throughout 200133 in preparation for the Presidential election set for March 2002. The result was an ever-increasing level of state-sponsored violence, and torture became endemic. The period saw the fraudulent re-election of Mugabe, the destruction of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, and economic collapse. 34 During 2003 human rights violations on a widespread and systematic scale continued unabated, peaking during local, mayoral and parliamentary by31 On 28 April 1999, Mugabe set up a Commission of Inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act (Chapter 10:07) in terms of Proclamation No. 6 of 1999 (SI 138A/99), to review the Lancaster House Constitution. Mugabe appointed all the members of the Commission, the vast majority of whom were Zanu-PF supporters, including the Commission’s head, Godfrey Chidyausiku, Judge President of the High Court. Within two years, after the Government had forced Chief Justice Gubbay into early retirement, Chidyausiku became Chief Justice. 32 A great deal of work has been done by The Amani Trust, and by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum of which Amani is a key member, to document the gross human rights violations in the current period. Some of the Amani reports covering the years 1999-2001 published in 2002 in Harare are: Organised Violence and Torture in the June 2000 General Elections; Neither Free nor Fair: High Court Decisions on the Petitions on the June 2000 General Election; Organised Violence and Torture in the Bye-Elections held in Zimbabwe during 2000 and 2001. Some of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reports covering 1999-2001, all published in Harare, are: Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe in 1999, (1999); Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe in 2000, (2000); Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe in 2001, (2001); Who is Responsible? A Preliminary Analysis of Pre-Election Violence in Zimbabwe, (2000); Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s June 2000 Election, (2001); Who was Responsible? A Consolidated Analysis of Pre-Election Violence in Zimbabwe, (2001). 33 See: Politically Motivated Violence in Zimbabwe 2000-2001: A Report on the Campaign of Political Repression conducted by the Zimbabwean Government under the Guise of carrying out Land Reform, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Harare, 2001; A Report on Post-Election Violence, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Harare, 2000; Evaluating the Abuja Agreement, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Harare, 2001. 34 See the following Amani reports published in Harare in 2002: The Presidential Election and the Post-Election Period in Zimbabwe; Preliminary Report on Internally Displaced Persons from Commercial Farms in Zimbabwe; Beating your Opposition: Torture During the 2002 Presidential Election in Zimbabwe. See also the following Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reports published in Harare in 2002: Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s Presidential Election: March 2002; Teaching Them a Lesson: A Report on the Attack on Zimbabwean Teachers; Are They Accountable? Examining Alleged Violators and their Violations Pre and Post the Presidential Election March 2002. The destruction of the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law during the period since 1999 is comprehensively analysed in Justice in Zimbabwe, Legal Resources Foundation, Harare, 2002. See also the earlier report of the Research Unit of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Enforcing The Rule of Law in Zimbabwe, Special Reports 3, (Harare), September 2001. 7