41 experienced organised violence69. Generally, they have chronic depression or similar disorders. They often have accompanying physical disabilities – bad back pain is a frequent symptom. They are poorer than their neighbours, with a range of other socio-economic handicaps70. It does not really make much difference who tortured them. Families remain deeply traumatised by these absent relatives. Many are dealing with the ghosts that haunt them and cause continued problems, particularly of illness71. And now, in addition, they are facing a second experience of organised violence and torture. The Matabeleland Emergency (Gukurahundi) The events of the 1980s have been well-described in the report of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Legal Resources Foundation, “Breaking the Silence”. Violence and torture were experienced in the southern half of Zimbabwe and particularly by the Ndebele-speaking people, who were assumed to be supporting ‘dissidents’. This was not a war for the hearts and minds of the people, but a terror campaign to destroy the will of a whole community. Such horrible occurrences are clearly detailed in Breaking the Silence. People were subjected to a curfew and faced near-starvation as food supplies were interfered with. Some were even told they would be deliberately starved. Many lived with the immediate memory of the cruel deaths of friends and relatives whose bodies were thrown into shallow graves without the opportunity of grieving or a proper burial. Others disappeared altogether, having been taken away and undoubtedly killed. This has been a particularly bitter legacy of the Gukurahundi, as is attested by recent research72. Few people in Matabeleland North and South escaped without some exposure to these events and the effects can be seen quite clearly today. Epidemiological studies show us the scale: nearly five adults in ten attending rural clinics or hospital as outpatients are victims of the organised violence and torture of the past decades and over 90 per cent of these derive their trauma from the 1980s. All the available evidence indicates that this epidemic of organised violence and torture can be blamed on the Fifth Brigade, the CIO and ZANU (PF) Youth. These were all organisations that reported to ZANU (PF) or the Prime Minister. This is common cause and there are ample reports of the Prime Minister, the government and the commanders of the Fifth Brigade confirming this chain of command. There has been no credible attempt to provide redress for the victims and no attempt to investigate the allegations of governmentsponsored violence and torture. The government’s own reports have been suppressed, and it is only due to the efforts of non-government organisations that any of this history has been publicised. The Food Riots In 1998, the human rights community in Harare swung into action following the many reports of human rights violations, and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Human Rights Forum) was formed. This group, then a loose alliance of NGOs, provided assistance to detainees, persons complaining of human 69 See Reeler, A.P., Mbape,P., Matshona,J., Mhetura,J., & Hlatywayo,E. (2001), The prevalence and nature of disorders due to torture in Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe, TORTURE, 11, 4-9. 70 See Reeler, A.P., & Mhetura, J. (2000), The psychosocial effects of organised violence and torture: A pilot study comparing survivors and their neighbours in Zimbabwe, JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA, 15, 137-169. 71 See Mupinda, M (1997), Loss and grief among the Shona: the Meaning of Disappearances, LEGAL FORUM, 9, 41-49. 72 See AMANI (1999) "A "Report on the Exhumation and Reburial Exercise Overseen by the AMANI Trust in Gwanda District, 25 July to 3 September 1999" BULAWAYO: AMANI. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.