Foreword The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has for the past fifteen years been working with victims of organized violence and torture to try and find redress. Recommendations have been made at both local and international levels on how to address the legacy of gross human rights violations: from the United Nations Human Rights Committee (which issued a report in September 1998 endorsing the Forum’s call for an independent commission of inquiry), to the voices of ordinary citizens (calling for a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in the Taking Transitional Justice to the People Outreach Programme). Zimbabwe is still to see a comprehensive official transitional justice process, yet an official process without the participation of the grassroots is not comprehensive enough. The Forum acknowledges the work of the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration (ONHRI) in facilitating national dialogue on this issue. The Forum supports the work of many committed civil society organizations that have filled the gap and responded to the plight of victims by providing psychosocial support, legal assistance and other non-official interventions. However, Zimbabwe remains in deficit of justice for all her citizens. The International Conference on Transitional Justice has set the tone for actionoriented dialogue among all stakeholders in the urgent search for sustainable peace. It is encouraging that government, churches, labour, business and civil society have started coming together in this search. We owe it to the victims, both living and departed – we owe it to our children – to find solutions that make sense in our context. In as much as we can learn from the suffering of others, our own suffering remains unique and very personal, as individuals and as a society. There is no substitute for a dialogue with ourselves. Inasmuch as we tread the halls of the United Nations, bang on the doors of SADC, and listen to the chilling stories from our friends in Rwanda, Uganda and Liberia, we still come back to ourselves, and it is from us that the solutions must be found. As Dr Whande noted in her keynote address, we are initiating a deep conversation with our past, a conversation that reaches four generations into the future. It is our hope that this report admits everyone into the deliberations that took place in Nyanga and also into the intergenerational conversation on truth, justice and accountability for all Zimbabwe. Abel Chikomo Executive Director, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum International Conference on Transitional Justice, Zimbabwe ix