40 for any violations ever, it is fair to say, and hence it is normal even for victims to be expected to mostly lick their wounds in silence, and hardly ever to have their day in court. Zimbabwe’s history of gross human rights violations: The following is an extremely abbreviated overview of the major periods in which gross human rights violations took place, as well as indications of what those violations comprised66. The Liberation War Although much has been written about the war that took place after the unilateral declaration of independence in 1965, much less has been written about the human rights violations that occurred during this period. There were valiant attempts to document these at the time67, but this was largely rendered ineffective after the passing of the Indemnity and Compensation Act in 1975. However, the human rights violations of the 1970s have nonetheless been described in some detail subsequently68. It is clear that the War of Liberation resulted in large-scale human rights violations. Rural people were forced to spend seven or eight years in ‘protected villages’, living in near refugee camp conditions with inadequate sanitation, poor diet, and a high risk of being killed or maimed. By 1977, nearly 750,000 people were confined to such villages, a significant percentage of the then population of about five million, whilst hundreds of thousands more were in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Torture was a high risk for everyone, since political loyalty was demanded by all sides. Rhodesian torture could range from the more sophisticated horrors of electrical shock, mock drowning, suspensions, and drugs, to slaps, punches, kicks, and beatings with sticks. It could be inflicted by anyone, especially after the Smith government passed the Indemnity and Compensation Act in 1975. The guerrillas’ methods were less sophisticated, but more likely to be lethal. The ‘pungwes’ [all night morale-raising sessions] that brought people together in solidarity of purpose and action also acted as the courts of the liberation movements. Rightly or wrongly, people were accused, and often convicted, of being ‘sell-outs’. People were also executed, and these public executions have left many with the most horrible memories of the War of Liberation. Torture was such a common event that nearly two decades later, one can see the victims with relative ease in every rural clinic and outpatient department in Zimbabwe. Epidemiological studies have shown that about one in ten adults over 30 years old in a Mashonaland clinic have either been tortured or 66 67 68 In presenting this review a bias towards using reports that contain court findings or medical evidence will be seen. Such evidence can be seen as providing the most scientific evidence for the historical record. Zimbabwe has a good number of such reports, and, comparatively speaking, has a very high number of good forensic studies of gross human rights violations over the past few decades. See CCJP (1975), The Man in the Middle, SALISBURY: CATHOLIC COMMISSION FOR JUSTICE & PEACE; See also CCJP (1976), Civil War in Rhodesia, SALISBURY: CATHOLIC COMMISSION FOR JUSTICE & PEACE. See, for example, Reeler, A.P., & Mupinda, M. (1996), An Investigation into the psychological sequelae of Torture and Organised Violence in Zimbabwean war veterans, LEGAL FORUM, 8, 12-27; Amani (1997), Survivors of Torture in Mount Darwin District, Mashonaland Central Province: Overview of Report and Recommendations, LEGAL FORUM, 9, 49-60; AMANI (1998), Survivors of Torture and Organised Violence from the 1970 War of Liberation, HARARE: AMANI. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.