police force has largely abrogated the right of freedom of assembly for opponents of government. It has freely allowed meetings and demonstrations by ruling party supporters, but has frequently disallowed and brutally broken up meetings and demonstrations by the opposition and by organisations that are critical of the Mugabe administration. The police have arrested on spurious charges large numbers of opposition supporters and critics of the government and, in many instances, have subjected them to torture. Particularly in the lead-up to elections, ruling party supporters, including war veterans and indoctrinated youth militia, have violently attacked many opposition office bearers, candidates and supporters. Political campaigning by opposition parties has been severely disrupted and the mass media, which the ruling party dominates, have acted as propaganda mouthpieces for the ruling party in support of its election campaign. Government functionaries and traditional leaders have tried to force rural people to support the ruling party by withholding food relief supplies from opposition supporters or threatening to expel them from their villages. The ruling party has also engaged in widespread vote buying, using state resources for this purpose. The high levels of violence against opposition supporters in past elections have had a cumulative impact on the minds of the voters generally. They have created fear that if they vote for the opposition they may themselves be victimised and subjected to violence. They may therefore believe that they cannot freely choose how they will vote. The damage done cannot be quickly repaired. Even if more favourable conditions are created, it will take time for voters to regain confidence in the freeness and fairness of electoral processes. 4. Instruments of violence and intimidation The SADC mediation process did not result in the dismantling of the ruling party’s armoury of instruments for violence and intimidation. It has used these in previous elections to obstruct political campaigning by the opposition and to intimidate opposition supporters. These instruments remain as strong as ever and continue to be used countrywide, with little attempt to restrain them. These instruments include the war veterans, the youth militia, the police force, the intelligence service, the army and the traditional leaders. In the lead up to the 2008 elections levels of violence appear to be on the increase. Zimbabwe Peace Project warned of increasing political violence as elections approach. It said that since November 2007 the project had recorded 1775 incidents of political violence compared with about 1000 in the comparable period leading up to 2005 general elections. Most of the violence, it says was perpetrated by ruling party supporters. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has confirmed that there have been increasing levels of political violence. It reports that over the last 12 months there has been relentless violence and suppression in which the security forces have played a major role. It says that, 5