  Violations that took place at schools. These include violations where teachers were the targets (whether or not this took place at school), on the rationale that violations against teachers would be quickly known in the surrounding community (and by children), especially if the teacher subsequently left the area. Also included were violations that took place at schools, on the basis that this too would be known in the surrounding community (and by children). Finally, cases where schools were mentioned as “bases”. Because this too would be known in the surrounding community (and by children). This turned out to be 89 cases; Violations that took place at domestic houses, on the basis that these would usually involve the whole family as witnesses, and therefore witnessed by children. This turned out to be 254 cases. The data was entered on a spread sheet and then each case was carefully examined to draw out the details of each case as binary entries in order that quantification was possible. A variety of descriptors were derived for this analysis, covering the following areas:    Perpetrator type - police, army, central intelligence organization (CIO), war veteran, youth militia, ZANU PF supporter, MDC supporter, traditional leader, other; Violation type – arson, assault, abduction, displacement, intimidation, rape, theft, threat, torture, sexual assault, other; Place of violation – home, school, “base”, public place, etc. The data is described as simple frequencies and percentages. 3. Results The results are reported by each of the categories as suggested earlier. 3.1. Direct experience of violence by children There were 103 cases in the Human Rights Forum reports that referred to children having direct experience of the violence, either by having physical harm inflicted upon them, or witnessing direct harm to adults, both in their families or others, or being the victims of violent displacement. This category is distinguished from the third category by there being direct as opposed to implied presence of children. The age structure (where such information was available) of the children involved in these reports was of great concern for 42 (67%) were under five years old, meaning that a potentially vulnerable and impressionable group was either experiencing or witnessing serious harm. 3.1.1 Violations experienced or witnessed by children As can be seen from Table 1 (over), 82 separate violations were recorded from these 103 cases, with some very serious violations at high rates amongst them - displacement (39%) being the highest, but assault (17%), detention (15%), and the family being separated from each other (12%) were also reported with moderately high frequency also . However, all the violations are serious and can have adverse effects on the children affected. 8