was in favour of a “broad-based” government, led by the MDC as the winners in the March poll, and excluding Robert Mugabe.31 While all these manouvers were going on, and against the background of the now catastrophic decline in the economy, as well as the escalating humanitarian crisis, the progress to the Run-off has continued. Increasing numbers of reports of violence have been received, with greater numbers of deaths being reported, and the Zimbabwe government response has been to escalate the crackdown against the MDC, through the harassment of Morgan Tsvangirai, and arrests of MPs and members, together with the banning of most MDC meetings and rallies. The government also announced a ban on all NGOs and humanitarian organizations, but ameliorated this by restricting the ban to all organizations concerned with “mobilising people”, which means virtually all NGOs. It has further shrunk the media space, banning all MDC advertisements on radio, television, and the governmentinfluenced press, and vociferously propounded vicious anti-MDC propaganda. The Zimbabwe government has also continued to allege that there is political violence, and has most recently asserted that the MDC is the major proponent of this violence. This is a tactic that has been used before – in the aftermath of the torture of many members of the MDC in March 2007 – but is one that is easily exposed.32 As was shown by the Human Rights Forum report, the allegations of MDC and civic violence was wholly false – most were accused of indulging in normal civic and democratic activity – and those arrested for violence were themselves the victims of torture, police brutality, and unlawful arrest and detention. It is also worth mentioning that there is ample evidence to demonstrate that the ZRP uses arrest and detention as a method of intimidation against both political party leaders and members of civil society organizations. 33 Whilst all concerned parties have recognised the extreme violence that has been taking place, there has been no attempt to place it any context other than the violence that usually accompanies elections in Zimbabwe, and certainly no attempt to contextualise the violence as the most serious violations of human rights, crimes against humanity. The Human Rights NGO Forum raised this definition in its report of 5 May 2008, and, in this present report, provides further support of this contention. 31 It has been argued that the calls for a GNU, whilst understandable, have flown in the face of the polling result from the March election, and may have strongly contributed to the violence itself. Here see Kwinjeh. G (2008), Staring a gift horse in the mouth. Death Spiral in Zimbabwe: Mediation, Violence and the GNU. 18 June 2008. [www.kubatana.net] 32 The Zimbabwe Republic Police issued two reports after the March 2007 arrests and torture, but the credibility of these reports were comprehensively challenged by the Human Rights Forum. Here see ZRP, “Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: A Trail of Violence”, April 2007; ZRP, “Opposition Forces in Zimbabwe: The Naked Truth, Volume 2”. May 2007; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2007), At Best a Falsehood, At Worst a Lie? Shooting Oneself in the Foot? Comments on the Zimbabwe Republic Police Report “Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe. A Trail of Violence. June 2007. HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. Here see Zimbabwe Institute (2004), Playing with Fire. Cape Town: Zimbabwe Institute; Solidarity Peace Trust (2004), “Disturbing the peace”. An overview of civilian arrests in Zimbabwe: February 2003 – January 2004. July 2004. ZIMBABWE & SOUTH AFRICA: SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST. 33