(also known as Gukurahundi).7 The LRF officers received constant requests for help from the communities still suffering from the aftermath of Gukurahundi. They needed help to obtain death certificates for heads of families who had disappeared in the 1980s and to enable children to get birth certificates to entitle them to go to school and for other administrative purposes.8 In response to the accounts of the victims, the LRF and CCJP decided to document the atrocities committed during Gukurahundi. These efforts resulted in the publication of a report entitled Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace in 1997. The report was produced independently from the Chihambakwe Committee of Inquiry and was an attempt by civil society to publicize the human rights violations in Matabeleland and the Midlands. The report used a variety of sources, such as statements from victims; records from missionaries, journalists, and lawyers; interviews; documents from Amnesty International and the Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights; and evidence from graves and disused mine shafts where bodies had been thrown.9 To date, Breaking the Silence remains the only published report about the atrocities in Matabeleland and the Midlands. Over 2 000 people were interviewed over a period of six years, and evidence was subjected to forensic examination by international experts. The degree of brutality revealed was so shocking that, even before its publication, it caused divisions in civil society. There were fears in the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference that the report would rip society apart. It took courage, bravery and determination for the producers of the report to publish it. Despite these efforts, the atrocities remain officially unacknowledged and unaddressed. 6. Economic Decline and New Civic Consciousness In the late 1990s, the rising cost of living caused many other issues to become topical. The government launched a series of economic policies including Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAPs), without the participation of the broader society. These impacted negatively on the workers who felt that the government was excluding them from the formulation of economic policies. That period also marked the beginning of open confrontation between the government and civil society demanding justice, accountability and good governance. A number of human rights organizations emerged in the period and pursued civic education programmes. In May 1997, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) was formed, a coalition of many organizations, to push for constitutional reform. Civil society became more organized and many other human rights organizations emerged. In 1998, there were spontaneous food riots in all the major cities, particularly Harare and Chitungwiza. The hungry workers went on the rampage in the streets and high-density suburbs, looting commodities from shops. The police and the army reacted with brutal force against the rioters and eight people were killed; many others were wounded, arrested and tortured during and after the unrest. This led to the formation of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) to respond to the crisis that had been created by police brutality against the rioters. Under the umbrella of the Forum, several human rights NGOs reflected collectively on what action should be taken to reduce the violation of human rights and push for accountability in Zimbabwe. The Forum started the process of collecting and documenting human rights abuses Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report 5