15 • A possible ruptured bowel in 1 individual due to severe blunt trauma to the abdomen. • A split right ear lobe sustained by Grace Kwinjeh. • Prolonged detention without accessing medical treatment resulted in severe haemorrhage in Morgan Tsvangirai leading to severe anaemia, which warranted a blood transfusion. • Injuries sustained by Sekai Holland were also worsened by denial of timely access to medical treatment, which led to an infection of deep soft tissue in her left leg. • Denial of access to treatment in another individual suffering from hypertension lead to angina”.37 After the assaults, the arrestees were ordered to board a truck. A group had to lift the prone body of Morgan Tsvangirai onto the truck. The group was taken to Harare Central Police Station and again put into a courtyard where they were questioned by police officers and members of the CIO. In a technique frequently used to make it difficult for lawyers to locate their clients, they were then ordered back onto the truck and dispersed at various police stations around Harare. Further beatings were inflicted on some of the activists at these police stations. These brutal assaults and torture, corroborated by medical evidence, obvious physical injuries and consistent accounts of the victims, are addressed in two sentences in the first ZRP report: “[Tsvangirai] was not assaulted whilst in police detention” (page 15). “As the police officers were trying to arrest [Madhuku] in terms of law for being abusive and defiant, he violently resisted and he was injured whilst resisting police arrest” (page 15). The government’s bland denial of the violence perpetrated on Tsvangirai was made farcical after pictures of his injuries, particularly a deep gash on his head, were broadcast world wide, so various other explanations were proffered by government representatives. Among the more fanciful was a claim that Tsvangirai and Madhuku had launched an attack on Machipisa police station and that the police acted in self defence. David Mangota, the Secretary for Justice, suggested to representatives from the International Commission of Jurists and a delegation from the Pan African Parliament investigating the incident that the pictures of Tsvangirai’s wounds were the work of make-up artists. In an interview on 13 th March, 2007 broadcast on South Africa’s radio SAfm, government spokesperson, Nathan Shamuyarira, floundering in his attempts to deny the obvious, stated that the assaults were “part of the normal interaction with the police”. All these attempts at obfuscation were undone by President Mugabe himself who stated in relation to Tsvangirai: 37 See the March 2007 Monthly Political Violence Report by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum p10.