“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilisation cannot
tolerate their being ignored.”
Opening remarks for the prosecution by Justice Robert Jackson at the
Nuremberg tribunal.
Background
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has been documenting political violence since its inception
in 1998, and, since July 2001, has been issuing Monthly Political Violence Reports. In addition, the
Human Rights Forum has issued a total of 34 special reports, many of these concerned with violence
during elections. The Human Rights Forum has consistently indicated that the majority of the violence
recorded has been undertaken by both state agents and supporters of the ZANU PF party. The
Human Rights Forum has been vindicated in its allegations, both by the reports of independent
human rights organizations and bodies as well as by the decisions of the Zimbabwean courts. 1
The Human Rights Forum’s reports have received little or no consideration from the Government of
Zimbabwe, as there is little or no evidence that any of its allegations have had serious attention, and
the Human Rights Forum has had to continue to express its concern. Ahead of the March 2008 poll,
the Human Rights Forum issued a comprehensive report on the probability of the elections being free
and fair, and drew particular attention to the deteriorating human rights climate. The Human Rights
Forum pointed out that there has been a steady increase in the number of alleged violations being
reported to itself and its members since 2004.
Table 1
Consolidated statistics [numbers of violations reported] per year: July 2001 to April 2008
[Source: Human Rights Forum ]
Abductions
arrest &
detention
Assault
attempted
murder
death threats
disappearance
displacement
Freedoms
Murder
Political
discrimination
property
violation
Rape
school closure
Torture
Total
Monthly
average:
1
2001
116
2002
223
2003
52
2004
62
2005
18
2006
11
2007
19
2008
48
Totals
670
0
274
86
627
388
389
401
1286
530
2611
486
2766
865
286
922
8909
3678
0
0
0
0
12
34
2
12
28
11
39
61
10
80
4
208
809
10
10
35
0
189
760
3
1
9
0
609
1036
4
3
7
0
55
1866
2
0
7
0
0
3500
3
4
23
0
412
1324
10
30
173
32
1484
9346
127
194
388
450
514
476
288
980
1547
4837
356
0
0
903
2285
807
7
45
1172
3155
153
6
1
497
3295
132
3
0
389
2887
61
4
0
136
4170
55
1
0
366
5751
16
0
0
603
8759
89
0
11
596
5272
1669
21
57
4662
35574
380.8
262.9
274.6
240.6
347.5
479.3
729.9
1757.3
549
Here see Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2006), An Analysis of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Legal Cases,
1998–2006. Published by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. June 2006, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO
FORUM.