overwhelming majority of victims of violence during the country’s most recent elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005 were officials and members of the MDC, their supporters and anyone perceived to support the party, including ordinary Zimbabweans and civil society activists. In the run-up to the parliamentary election of June 2000, international organizations such as Amnesty International documented extrajudicial executions, torture, beatings and abductions—the vast majority committed by supporters of the ruling party or government agents.5 Further state-orchestrated violence took place in the run-up to the 2002 presidential election, as documented and criticized by members of observer missions from the United States, Norway, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Commonwealth present during that election, as well as international nongovernmental organizations.6 Elections in 2005, although flawed, were significantly more peaceful in the run-up.7 However in the immediate aftermath, the government of Zimbabwe embarked on Operation Murambatsvina (Clear the Filth), an eviction campaign that left more than 700,000 people without homes or livelihoods.8 The evictions were carried out throughout the high-density urban areas of the country. Although the government claimed that the operation was carried out to remove criminal elements and clean up the cities, Human Rights Watch and others contended that one of the reasons was to punish those in the high-density suburbs who voted for the MDC during the 2005 elections. 5 Amnesty International, “Terror tactics in the run-up to elections,” June 2000, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFAR460142000?OPEN&of=ENG-ZWE (accessed February 28, 2008). 6 See Commonwealth Observer Report, “Preliminary Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the Zimbabwe Presidential Election, 9–10 March 2002,” March 14, 2002, http://www.afrol.com/Countries/Zimbabwe/documents/commonw_elections_group.htm (accessed February 28, 2008); “Preliminary Statement on Presidential Elections by the Norwegian Observer Team,” Oslo, March 13, 2002, http://www.afrol.com/Countries/Zimbabwe/documents/commonw_elections_group.htm (accessed February 28 2008); and “Statement on the Zimbabwe Elections,” SADC Parliamentary Forum Observer Mission, Harare, March 13, 2002, http://www.africaaction.org/docs02/zim0203.htm (accessed February 28, 2008). Human Rights Watch, Not a Level Playing Field: Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Elections in 2005, March 21, 2005, http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/zimbabwe0305.pdf. 7 8 Human Rights Watch, Zimbabwe – Evicted and Forsaken: Internally Displaced Persons in the Aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina, vol. 17, no. 16(A), December 1, 2005, http://hrw.org/reports/2005/zim1205/zim1205webwcover.pdf. 11 Human Rights Watch 2008