the call for radical land redistribution to fulfill the promises made at independence, giving official blessing to a new wave of land occupations led by members of the War Veterans Association that had rapidly accelerated following the referendum result. Members of the army were also involved in coordinating and facilitating these occupations. Capitalizing on the fact that land reform remains a powerful issue for any political party to invoke, Zanu-PF campaigned for the June 2000 parliamentary elections on the slogan “Land is the Economy; the Economy is Land.”22 The government implemented the provisions of the rejected draft constitution relating to land acquisition through parliament, adding a new section 16A to the existing constitution. The amendment, which became law in April 2000, significantly extended the grounds on which land could be compulsorily acquired and absolved the government from providing compensation, except for improvements; instead, the “former colonial power” should provide any compensation. 23 The Land Acquisition Act was further amended in May 2000, using the power given to the president to enact six month temporary legislation under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act of 1986; and again November, through parliament in a two-day process. The stated aim was to “clarify and streamline various procedural aspects of the acquisition process and to prescribe new compensation rules in accordance with the Constitution.”24 On the other hand, the ruling party mobilized violence against the political opposition. There had been some political violence before the February 2000 referendum, but the parliamentary elections were marked by much worse violence and intimidation, supported by public statements by senior ZanuPF figures, particularly directed against MDC candidates and supporters, white farm owners and black farm workers, teachers, civil servants, journalists, and residents of rural areas believed to support opposition parties. While there was some reciprocal violence by MDC supporters against the ruling party, all systematic monitoring showed opposition supporters as the majority of victims, and Zanu-PF supporters as the majority of perpetrators.25 There was also widespread criticism of the conduct of the poll, of media bias, and the legal framework provided by the Electoral Act. Nevertheless, the MDC came close to winning more seats than Zanu-PF, gaining fifty-seven seats to the ruling party’s sixty-two (plus thirty MPs appointed by the executive), on a 50 percent turnout. The MDC challenged thirty-nine constituency results in the High Court; the defeated candidates and many witnesses were themselves subjected to serious intimidation. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, basing its findings on information received by its constituent organizations, found that at least seventy-two people had died in pre-election political violence, and eight in post-election violence, up to the end of the year.26 22 In an opinion poll conducted in March 2000, 30 percent of Zimbabweans wanted to see farms removed from white owners. (Land, however, ranked fourth among respondents’ concerns, after inflation, unemployment, and the fall in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar.) The survey was of 1,900 randomly selected respondents interviewed during the run-up to the referendum and results were published in the Harare Standard on March 12, 2000; see Cheater, Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s June 2000 Election, p.15. 23 Section 16A now provides that, among other things: (1)(c)- the people of Zimbabwe must be enabled to reassert their rights and regain ownership of their land; and accordingly— i - the former colonial power has an obligation to pay compensation for agricultural land compulsorily acquired for resettlement, through an adequate fund established for the purpose; and ii - if the former colonial power fails to pay compensation through such a fund, the Government of Zimbabwe has no obligation to pay compensation for agricultural land compulsorily acquired for resettlement. See COHRE, Land, Housing and Property Rights in Zimbabwe, for further discussion of Zimbabwe’s constitutional provisions on land acquisition. 24 Land Reform and Resettlement Programme: Revised Phase II, paragraph 2.5. 25 Cheater, Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s June 2000 Election; Amnesty International Zimbabwe: Terror Tactics in the Runup to Parliamentary Elections (London: Amnesty International, June 2000); see als o European Union, Report of the E.U. Election Observation Mission on the Parliamentary Elections in Zimbabwe 24-25 June 2000 (Strasbourg/Harare: European Union, July 2000), available at www.eueop.org, accessed November 25, 2001. E.U. monitors independently found that, of 250 incidents of violence reported to monitors in the field, Zanu-PF supporters were alleged to be perpetrators in 68 percent of cases, MDC supporters in 7 percent of cases, and other perpetrators including war veterans in 18 percent of cases. The Amani Trust found Zanu-PF supporters and government officials to be responsible for more than 90 percent of the cases of violence reported to it, and MDC and others for 2 percent. Amani Trust Matabeleland Office, Recount on Political Violence in Zimbabwe (Bulawayo: Amani Trust, June 2000). 26 Cheater, Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s June 2000 Election, p. 35; for detailed statistics see also Human Rights Monitor 2000 Annual Report (Harare: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, 2001). Human Rights Watch 10 March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)