The group did not report frequencies of torture as high as previous groups,16 which again is unsurprising since most had only one encounter with the police or the army. Impact torture was reported much more frequently than other forms, and, of the forms of impact torture, beatings were the most frequently reported. Psychological abuse was reported with the greatest frequency. A very high proportion (24%) of the group reported unconsciousness, but most of these reported unconsciousness of less than 30 minutes (Table 11). For the majority of those reporting unconsciousness, this was associated with gunshot wounds, but two members reported unconsciousness following assaults. Unconsciousness is important to identify, both because of its association with long-term disability and its status as an indicator of the severity of the assault. Table 11: Unconsciousness reported by Food Riots victims <30 minutes 30–60 minutes 60–120 minutes >120 minutes 7 1 1 1 The group as a whole reported very high numbers of symptoms after the alleged torture. The mean number of symptoms reported was very high (13.7), and this was a mixture of both psychological and physical symptoms. People with ordinary psychological disorders have been shown to present with high numbers of symptoms – about 3 according to most Zimbabwean studies17 – and this group has a considerably higher number of symptoms. This is probably due to the combination of physical and psychological injuries. In addition, 16 (43%) of the group were suffering from a clinically significant psychological disorder. This was slightly lower than other Zimbabwean groups that have suffered gross human rights violations, but, as stated in the previous report,18 is undoubtedly due to the fact that most people experienced only a single occurrence. No details of the personal experience of any of these cases were reported in 1999, since all these cases were sub judice, but the general data corroborated the reports from the Mabvuku interviews. The sample overwhelmingly reported experiences of gross human rights violations, and, distressingly, most had physical, psychological and social difficulties as a consequence of their experience. At the time of the 1999 report, all these cases were awaiting the outcome of their civil suits, with the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s Office indicating that it would contest all the cases. Here the Human Rights Forum commented: this is unsatisfactory in the light of the UN Human Rights Committee’s recommendations that all cases of gross human rights violations should be paid compensation, and that it is legalistic of the Government to insist upon court proceedings before any award of compensation. We are certain that this was not the intention of the UN committee.’ Furthermore, the Human Rights Forum pointed out that the cases reported upon represented only a small proportion of the persons who were likely to have experienced gross human rights violations. If, as noted above, more than 70% of the persons seen in the Harare Magistrate’s Court 16 See again Amani Trust, Survivors of Torture and Organised Violence from the 1970s War of Liberation. See A. Hall, and H. Williams, ‘Hidden psychiatric morbidity: Part I: Study of prevalence in an outpatient population at Bindura Provincial Hospital’, Central African Journal of Medicine, 33 (1987), 239; A. P. Reeler, H. Williams and C. H. Todd, ‘Psychopathology in primary care patients: A four-year study in rural and urban settings’, Central African Journal of Medicine, 39 (1993), 1–8; V. Patel, C. Todd, M. Winston, et al., ‘Common mental disorders in primary care in Harare, Zimbabwe: Associations and risk factors’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 171 (1997), 60–64. 18 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum A Consolidated Report on the Food Riots. 17 12