3 villages was extremely hard, and malnutrition, starvation, overcrowding, and inadequate sanitation were commonplace, as the investigations of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) demonstrated. The people were subjected to enormous stress as their loyalty became a key issue, as the Rhodesian security forces tried in every way to neutralise the support for the guerrillas, and used every means at their disposal to do this. This is not unusual, but the inevitable consequence of modern guerrilla warfare. Even medical doctors were used, and at least one documented example had doctors and research scientists assisting the Selous Scouts in providing poisoned clothing to the guerrillas. The climate of fear and suspicion created by these undercover operations fractured community trust, and pitted neighbour against neighbour, and even family member against family member. This view is bolstered by the reports from survivors of the direct effects upon their own families, a view supported further by the reports of war veterans. Table 4. Effects on other members of survivors’ families. Detention Imprisonment Torture Disappearance Deaths 23% 8% 62% 20% 23% In all, a picture of epidemic violence, with few escaping some experience, and a very high number reporting the torture of a relative. The effects were so severe that, nearly 30 years after the violence, 1 adult in 10 attending health care facilities in Mashonaland Central Province is a torture victim suffering the psychological consequences of torture. This picture is seen again in the violence of the 1980s, so well described in the reports of CCJP/LRF and also ZimRights. Again, we see epidemic levels of organised violence and torture, and in particular the return of the “pungwe” in a new and horrible form as “mass psychological torture”. Here thousands of ordinary people were forced into attending meetings at which torture and executions took place, and this witnessing has resulted in long-lasting and severe psychological disorders for thousands of victims. The data from epidemiological investigation indicates that nearly 5 in 10 adults in Matabeleland is a survivor of torture, mostly from the 1980s, but not exlusively so. I will not comment upon the Food Riots or the effects of all the various forms of impunity that have been applied subsequent to the violence, but it is important to note that there have been other epidemics of violence and, furthermore, that impunity has greatly exacerbated the suffering of the victims. 3. Monitoring the current violence The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum – the “Human Rights Forum” – has been monitoring organised violence and torture since the Food Riots in 1998, providing legal, medical and psychological assistance to victims. When it became apparent that the violence was escalating during 2000, the Human Rights Forum set up a special