6.1 Crimes against Humanity As was pointed out earlier, any allegation that crimes against humanity have been committed needs to fulfil a series of conditions. Firstly, as indicated earlier, but repeated here for ease of understanding, the acts complained of must fit a number of violation profiles, involving any, some, or all of the following: • • • • • • • • • • • Murder; Extermination; Enslavement; Deportation or forcible transfer of population; Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rule of international law; Torture; Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law; Enforced disappearance of persons; The crime of apartheid; Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. On the reports given to the Human Rights Forum, torture, persecution, and other inhumane acts are described very frequently. Persecution is alleged on the basis that the victims are disproportionately members of the Movement for Democratic Change, the MDC. As can be seen, this is an allegation that not only applies to the period between March and June 2008, but is also evident in the 2002 Presidential election. Furthermore, as was shown in several previous reports of the Human Rights Forum, all violations increase significantly during elections since 2000, and hence it is possible to claim that the violations seen in 2008 are a well-tried strategy of persecution. It is also evident, both from 2008 and 2002, that torture has been practised on a very large scale and, in respect of 2008, allegations by the victims reporting to the Human Rights Forum are supported by other reports. More importantly, the allegations of torture are strongly supported by the reports of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights [ZADHR], which issued three reports in the period March to June 2008, detailing very serious injuries that could only have been inflicted deliberately. Inhumane acts are also widely reported, and amongst these are the frequent reports of assaults occurring at citizens’ homes, followed by theft of their possessions and destruction of their homes, leaving people destitute, and subsequently displaced. This is acknowledged in the September 15 Agreement. Section 16.4(c), of Article XVI, notes that “ that all displaced persons shall be entitled to humanitarian and food assistance to enable them to return and settle in their original homes and that

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