Even when farms have never been designated for acquisition, or have been delisted following negotiations between the farm owner and the government, or where courts have ordered evictions, police have often not removed occupiers from the farms unless given instructions to do so by political authorities backed by Zanu-PF. The UNDP technical team noted that it had been presented “credible evidence” that the toleration of the police of occupations of farms in violation of the law had substantially reduced in the last quarter of 2001. 125 Discrimination in Land Allocation The government states that the process of fast track land reform is designed to meet the needs of disadvantaged black Zimbabweans. The desire for land is evident from numerous testimonies, including from people who support opposition parties which have officially opposed the process of fast track reform. As one thirty-nine-year-old villager who supported an opposition party, said: “Do I want land? Yes, I will run. We like that so much. We want to plow because we have poor soils.”126 Yet, testimony from witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch raises serious doubts as to whether those benefiting from the fast track program are those who are supposed to be first in line according to the government’s stated development plans. The first problem witnesses identified was the party-political channels for access to the forms for applying for land and discrimination in the allocation of plots. The second problem was the key role of the war veterans militias in distributing and allocating land, the same militias that villagers, opposition activists, and farm workers claim are responsible for violence and intimidation. In practice, the official structure for allocating land through civil service and elected officials (such as the rural district councils), is often superseded by informal processes governed by the war veterans and their associated ruling party militia. Because these processes are effectively unregulated, beneficiary selection can become highly politicized. 127 The blunting of the distinction between government and the ruling party in the structures responsible for allocating land under the fast track program poses further problems. This overlap between the ruling party and government has been a feature of Zimbabwean politics for some time now, as reflected in an interview with a senior government official. I don’t separate the government from Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF is the ruling party. It is the party that is in power. Zanu-PF is the one that is driving the manifesto and championing the resettlement program. 128 The perception among many people interviewed by Human Rights Watch was that land allocation was tied to support for the ruling party. At district level there can also be tension between elected and appointed government officials and the war veterans and other structures put in place for the fast track process. A councilor in Chimanimani, Manicaland, told Human Rights Watch that: We are twenty-three councilors in Chimanimani, we are the policy makers; but the land reform program is happening without us, it is not us who requested it, but a government issue…I don’t know what criteria are being used to select farms for resettlement, I’ve heard that it is land that is 125 UNDP Interim Mission Report, January 2002, p.31. Human Rights Watch Interview, villager from communal area, Harare, July 16, 2001. 127 Sam Moyo and Prosper Matondi, “Conflict Dimensions of Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Process,” May 2001, p.15. 128 Human Rights Watch interview, Dr. Vincent Hungwe, Principal Director of Land and Rural Resettlement, Harare, July 30, 2001. 126 Human Rights Watch 27 March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)