The inclusive government has dedicated Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week as days for renouncing political violence and promoting national healing.

In an Extraordinary Government Gazette Robert Mugabe declared 24, 25 and 26 July will be a period for all Zimbabweans at home and abroad to 'renounce and report all forms of political violence, in an effort to restore peace and stability in the country'.

Sekai Holland, the co-minister of National Healing, told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the three days will not be national holidays but dedication days, earmarked for individuals to take spiritual time to pray for national healing, reconciliation and integration.

The minister said this is the first time in the history of Zimbabwe where the State actually recognizes there has been violence in the country.

In the Government Gazette, Mugabe called for an end to political violence by all political parties, civil society and foreign organisations. But his sincerity has been questioned by critics who say his party has been at the forefront of all the violence and that ZANU PF still controls the organs of violence. Vicious militia camps, mostly in rural areas, have still not been dismantled, 'opponents' are still being terrorized in some parts of the country and violence on the farms continues.

The MDC issued a statement on Tuesday saying scores of party supporters across the country have in recent months been victims of politically motivated violence at the hands of 'Zanu PF thugs,' despite the formation of the inclusive government in February.

The statement said another MDC activist 'Ebba Katiyo, 31, is battling for her life in a private hospital after she was brutally attacked by Zanu PF thugs in Uzumba, Mashonaland East province on 12 July.'

Holland said that violence was still there but said it was not as bad as it was in previous years. She said: "The Global Political Agreement is a flawed and difficult document to work through and the structures we work in are ones that are by agreement, but none of what we are doing is what we as individuals do."

The Minister said the State was established in 1890 as a state of violence as a means of putting the population down, but that needs to change now. At independence in 1980 Mugabe called for reconciliation between blacks and white, and in 1987 the Unity Accord was signed between the rival ZANU PF and ZAPU to end acrimony between the two parties. This had followed the massacre of at least 20 000 people in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions by the Fifth Brigade, the Korean trained army brigade which reported directly to Mugabe.

Nearly 30 years after independence ZANU PF still revives the violence whenever it wants to.

Holland said that during the next six months the 'Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration' will go around the country to talk and hear from the public about what they want to heal the nation.

Holland caused a stir last month when she said in a BBC interview that serious violence was continuing despite the formation of the unity government. The statements were immediately dismissed by her party leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. When asked about this she said: "The BBC journalist lied that he was from a British NGO that deals with children. It was a few weeks before he put that programme on when the Prime Minister was visiting abroad. The things I said at the time I said them were correct. And he lied he was in Zimbabwe to collect money in the UK to build a school in Epworth."

However the BBC told SW Radio Africa in a statement that it stands by its story and 'refutes all claims made by Mrs. Holland." The BBC added: "We made it perfectly clear to Mrs. Holland that the material gathered in Zimbabwe would be made available to the British media."

Meanwhile Mrs. Holland acknowledged that there was still violence going on in Zimbabwe, but said it was not as bad as it was before the formation of the coalition government. She said: "In 2007 we have been having lightening, thunder and rain in terms of violence. In 2008 we had hail storm and in 2009, we have a drizzle which sometimes breaks out into a thunderstorm, as we have had in Gweru where two farmers have been killed. But it is a drizzle. It is not the same as the year before."