5 Forum. Most of them have good reason to believe they are still “being sought” and several have reported further incidents subsequent to their initial statement. We have also used reports from the individual human rights organisations which are members of the Forum and from other organisations, including the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. We have drawn upon reports from teachers and health workers’ organisations, the Churches, newspaper reports, the three political parties whose members have been worst hit in the violence, the United Party (UP), the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) and MDC, the farm workers union, GAPWUZ and the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU). Where possible we have tried to cross-check information that has come from secondary sources, bearing in mind that particularly regarding political parties there may be a possibility of exaggeration or distortion. The reports of the Human Rights Forum have been corroborated by the reports from other bodies, both local and international. Here we can mention the EU, the Commonwealth, the NDI, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust. All drew largely similar conclusions. The Land Issue It is pertinent to consider the so-called land problem in brief detail, since it has formed the basis of the government’s political campaigns, both prior and after the general election. It is common cause that the land apportionment of the pre-independence era was a significant issue in the promulgation of the Liberation War and the massive support for the war. It is also common cause that there was little significant progress by the Mugabe government in resolving the land problem for nearly 17 years. During this time resettlement did take place, but it is equally evident that Zanu (PF) party officials were as likely to benefit as the so-called “landless masses”. The issue came to a head in 1997, with the first land invasions of the postIndependence period, and this led directly to the Land Conference in 1998, when a formula acceptable to the government, the commercial farmers and the donors was found. Again there was little progress in resettlement, with government seemingly unwilling to set up the agreed transparent mechanisms to oversee land acquisition, and the commercial farmers responding by contesting all suggested acquisitions through the courts. However, there was no indication during all this time of any independent estimate of the demand by the wider community for land other than the government’s assertion that there was such demand. Even more significant was the government’s ignoring of the findings of the Presidential Commission on Land Reform, the so-called Rukuni Commission. The land issue did not form a significant concern during the constitutional reform process, and, indeed, an independent survey of political issues in Zimbabwe demonstrated that a very small percentage of the sample felt that land was an important immediate concern for government. The same survey showed that land as an issue for government concern ranked low in order of importance, and over 70% of the sample