Thus, the evidence before the Human Rights Forum corroborates all the recent reports, and indicates that state agents and supporters of ZANU PF are allegedly the preponderant perpetrators of these violations. The responsibility of the Zimbabwe government for protecting its citizens’ stands seriously questioned, and even more so given the utterances of the most senior government and political figures that there is a situation akin to a war. 24 There is an urgent need for the international community, and especially SADC, to bring the strongest possible pressure to bear on the Zimbabwe government to obey its constitutional responsibility, to ensure that all state agents act within the law, and that all proxy militia groups and party supporters are brought under civilian control, and, if this last is not possible, then there is the need for an international peace keeping force as some international leaders have suggested. Zimbabwe stands on a knife edge, with the possibility of even greater violence erupting, and this is a situation about which the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has continually and consistently warned. It is no credit to South Africa and SADC that they have consistently blocked discussion about gross human rights violations at international venues and forums, for their failure to do so has undoubtedly encouraged the Government of Zimbabwe and its supporters to believe that they can act with impunity. It is also evident that it would not be possible to claim that the immediately completed Presidential Run-off bore the vaguest resemblance to a free and fair election under any electoral standards in the world. Unsurprisingly, the election has drawn widespread condemnation, and from within Africa itself for nearly the first time. However, it is not enough to condemn an election; there must be some expression of the reasons for concluding this, and here the violence, amongst other factors, is clearly understood to be of such magnitude that the election was given a failed grade before it even took place. At this point in Zimbabwe’s history, when the citizens through continuous peaceful means and the ballot of March 2008, have unequivocally stated their preference for the government of the future, this requires South Africa and SADC to act firmly in defence of the Zimbabwean people. As a recent analysis has pointed out,25 there is no political violence in Zimbabwe, merely crimes against humanity, and this requires more than the wringing of hands and rhetoric, but rather strong action in terms of the SADC Treaty, and especially the AU Constitutive Act that specifically enjoins the African Union to take action in cases of war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity. The Human Rights Forum would not claim that the violence described above is genocide, which has been loosely argued in 24 These statements and utterances by the Zimbabwe government and ZANU PF are not new, however, and have been a consistent feature of the political landscape in Zimbabwe since 2000. See here Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2007), Their Words Condemn Them: The Language of Violence, Intolerance and Despotism in Zimbabwe, May 2007, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. 25 See Pigou. P (2008), Defining violation: Political violence or crimes against humanity? Paper commissioned by the Research and Advocacy Unit, SITO: IDASA.