Zimbabwe: An assessment of human rights violations in the run-up to the 31 March 2005 parliamentary elections 7 • People have been told that the ballot boxes will be transparent and that this will mean their vote can be “seen”. • Across Zimbabwe ruling party supporters have reportedly told people that when votes are counted in-situ the proportion of an area that voted for the MDC will be known, with the implicit threat that reprisal will follow for those areas that vote MDC. Amnesty International believes that the threat of future persecution is credible, given widespread human rights violations that followed the 2000 and 2002 elections, and the impunity that the majority of the perpetrators of these violations have enjoyed. Elections and the toll of impunity The pervasive climate of fear in Zimbabwe is fuelled by a history of impunity for the perpetrators of human rights violations. The serious violations and abuses of human rights during the war of independence from 1965 to 1980, especially by the government led by Ian Smith, were covered up by the blanket amnesty that accompanied independence. Gross human rights violations committed by the Zimbabwe National Army in Matabeleland in the 1980s were subject to an amnesty in 1988. Clemency Order (1) of 1995, officially excused the politically-motivated beatings, burning of homes and intimidation perpetrated by supporters of ZANU-PF during the 1995 elections. Another presidential pardon for political violence was declared after the June 2000 parliamentary elections: those involved in human rights violations - such as kidnapping and torture, but excluding murder, rape and fraud - were placed beyond the reach of the justice system. 16 This same culture of impunity is evident in respect of the violations that have occurred in the past five years. Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of human rights abuses in which no attempt has been made to bring the perpetrators to justice. 17 Impunity has been facilitated by politicisation of the police force and undermining the independence of the judiciary. In February 2005 Amnesty International interviewed people whose human rights had been violated because they had supported the MDC in previous elections. In each case the victims had not been able to gain relief or redress. In February 2002, shortly before the presidential elections, an entire village in Buhera, Manicaland, was forcibly evicted by ZANU-PF supporters because the villagers were known to support the MDC. In February 2005 Amnesty International went to Buhera to meet the villagers, who remain displaced, with families living in temporary shelters. In their new location they have almost no access to land – their original land is now being used by the ZANU-PF supporters who evicted them. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) assisted the villagers to obtain a court order in late 2002 which stated that they should be allowed to return to their village, but this court order has not been enforced. The 16 17 Ibid. For further information see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-zwe/index Amnesty International 15 March 2005 AI Index: AFR 46/003/2005