I have heard much concern expressed about the role of the military, including a recent statement by one of the country’s most senior army officers suggesting the army should throw its weight behind one political party – when for any country to be called a democracy, its army must observe strict political neutrality.37 Human Rights Watch investigations found that the Zimbabwe National Army has deployed soldiers across the country, under different guises including running the food distribution project (National Food Security Project), community projects (including helping with building schools) and an “army history research project.”38 Under the so-called army history project, members of the army go into villages asking villagers about the war of liberation and battles fought in their areas, ostensibly for documentation. Human Rights Watch investigations however reveal that, in the communities, the soldiers have been implicated in directly campaigning for Mugabe and ZANU-PF, and of harassing and intimidating villagers. Among areas where such army deployment and subsequent harassment and intimidation of villagers occurred include Buhera, Nyanga, Chipinge and Mutare in Manicaland province, Gokwe, Zhombe, Mberengwa, Silobela in Midlands province, and Chivhu, Marondera and Uzumba in Mashonaland East province.39 A member of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, a nationwide teachers union, told Human Rights Watch: Since February 2013 hundreds of soldiers and CIOs [security agents] have invaded most rural areas on the pretext that they are assessing the food security situation when in actual fact they are campaigning for ZANU-PF as reflected in reports from our membership.40 According to the local rights monitoring group Heal Zimbabwe Trust, a soldier from All Arms Battle Score, a small army base in Nyanga South, has since late March been going 37 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay press statement, Harare, May 25, 2012. 38 Human Rights Watch interview with three Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) representatives, Harare, February 20, 2013. See also, Zimbabwe Peace Project Monthly Monitor report, October 2012. 39 Ibid. 40 PTUZ Statement, April 23, 2013. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM 20