43 security forces. This was supported by the outcome of a number of legal actions instituted by the victims of the Food Riots76. The 2000 Parliamentary Election During the 2000 Parliamentary Elections in Zimbabwe, there were a very large number of reports made of gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the supporters of the Zanu(PF) government. These reports were made by local observer groups such as the Human Rights Forum, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), and the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZimCet), as well as by international human rights organisations and election observer groups. The initial reports were subsequently corroborated by more detailed reports77, and these covered a wide range of different aspects of the violence. The 2000 Parliamentary Elections have been analysed in considerable detail, especially through the evidence led in the 37 election petitions mounted by the MDC in the wake of the elections. These petitions have been well covered in a number of reports by the Amani Trust, a Zimbabwean NGO78, and these reports provide a very good overview of the human rights violations that took place over the election period. The emerging evidence suggests very strongly that the human rights violations were largely perpetrated by the supporters of ZanuPF as well as a number of different government agencies79. A subsequent analysis by the Redress Trust demonstrated very clearly that the violence being reported from 2000 onwards was mostly in respect of elections, and this contradicts the frequent assertions by the Zimbabwe government that the human rights violations are either due to conflicts over land or inter-party political violence80. The 2002 Presidential Election After the June 2000 Parliamentary elections it was hoped that the violence would subside, but, as the election petitions and by-elections occurred in the subsequent months, the violence kept appearing, concentrated in the constituency in which there was a direct challenge to the ruling party81. 76 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, (1999), Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe in 1999, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2000), Organised Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe in 2000, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. 77 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2000), Who is responsible? A preliminary analysis of pre-election violence in Zimbabwe, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2000), Report on political violence in Bulawayo, Harare, Manicaland, Mashonaland West, Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Midlands, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2000), A report on Post-Election Violence, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2000), Report on Preelection Political Violence in Mberengwa, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. 78 See AMANI (2002), Organised Violence and Torture in the June 2000 General Election in Zimbabwe, HARARE: AMANI TRUST; AMANI (2002), Neither Free nor Fair: High Court decisions on the petitions on the June 2000 General Election, HARARE: AMANI TRUST; AMANI (2002), Heroism in the Dock: Does testifying help victims of organised violence and torture? A pilot study from Zimbabwe, HARARE: AMANI TRUST. 79 See REELER, A.P. (2003), The Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations in Zimbabwe from February 2000 to March 2003, Paper presented to “Civil Society and Justice in Zimbabwe: A Symposium”, organised by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Themba Le Sizwe and the International Bar Association, Holiday Inn, Johannesburg, 11-13 August 2003. 80 See REDRESS (2004), Zimbabwe: Tortuous Patterns Destined To Repeat Themselves in Upcoming Election Campaign. Preliminary Study of Trends and Associations in the Pattern of Torture and Organised Violence in Zimbabwe, July 2001 – December 2003, LONDON: REDRESS TRUST. 81 See again REDRESS (2004), Zimbabwe: Tortuous Patterns Destined To Repeat Themselves in Upcoming Election Campaign. Preliminary Study of Trends and Associations in the Pattern of Torture and Organised Violence in Zimbabwe, July 2001 – December 2003, LONDON: REDRESS TRUST; see also AMANI (2002), Organised Violence and Torture in the Bye-Elections held in Zimbabwe during 2000 and 2001, HARARE: AMANI TRUST. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.