5 4. The Scale of current Organised Violence and Torture The current violence can be subdivided into violence that accompanies elections, and violence that is not specifically tied to elections, but serves other ends. 4.1 Electoral Violence A number of organisations provided information on the violence in the context of their assessment of the fairness of the General Election. All these organisations made the comment that there was significant violence in the pre-election period. The comments made by these various organisations are now receiving empirical testing in the election petitions currently been heard by the High Court in Harare. The results of these cases are being closely monitored by the Forum, and the Forum is issuing regular reports on the petitions1. 4.1.1 Human Rights Research Unit The Human Rights Research Unit of the Human Rights Forum produced its own report on the General Election2. This report produced an analysis of both the violence and the possible effects of the violence on the voting process. 4.1.2 Commonwealth Observer Group The Commonwealth sent a high level observer mission to Zimbabwe following the meeting between the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Mr Don McKinnon, and the President. Although the Observer Group made many observations about the electoral process and the voting, it was their comments about the violence that are pertinent to this present report3. The campaign was not peaceful. There was violence, intimidation and coercion in many parts of the country, especially in rural areas, both against ordinary voters and against candidates and party supporters. All parties share responsibility in this. There were incidents where opposition parties carried out acts of violence. But it would appear that most of the violence was directed against the opposition parties, especially the Movement for Democratic Change. These violent acts included murders, rapes and beatings and the ransacking and burning of houses of opposition party members and supporters. It was reported that 36 people had 1 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– February 26, 2001, v.1, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– March 5, 2001, v.2, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– March 12, 2001, v.3, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– March 19, 2001, v.4, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– March 26, 2001, v.5, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– April 2, 2001, v.6, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– April 9, 2001, v.7, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– April 16, 2001, v8, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– April 30, 2001, v9, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– May7, 2001, v102, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum– May14, 2001, v.11, Zimbabwe Parliamentary Election Challenges Newsletter. Copies can be obtained from admin@hrforum.co.zw 2 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2001), Human Rights and Zimbabwe’s June 2000 Election, Human Rights Research Unit, Special Report No.1, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. 3 See COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT (2000), Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group Mission to the 2000 Zimbabwe General Election.