20 made serious allegations about the involvement of the ZRP in torture and other violations.43 These allegations have been supported and matched in their conclusions by the reports of respected international human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and have received support from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Fact Finding Mission of 2002. The allegations have not been idle or frivolous, as is often claimed by the Zimbabwe government, and, as the Forum demonstrated in a report issued last year (2006), the allegations are supported by judgments emanating from Zimbabwe’s High Court.44 As was shown in the 2006 report, in the completed cases, the allegations of the complainants, supported by the Forum, have been upheld by the court in nearly 90% of the cases, many of which were determined after state counsel effectively acknowledged the truth of the complainants’ allegations by consenting to the orders sought. This is an extraordinary trend and one that strongly supports the views of the Forum and others in regard to violations of human rights by the ZRP. The Forum continues to support similar civil suits against the ZRP and its governing ministry, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and it is worth noting that the Forum has filed further notices of intention to sue in 127 cases related to the violations which have occurred since 11th March 2007. These cases provide evidence of systematic and egregious abuse of power by the ZRP. A recent judgment in the High Court45 provides further indication of abuse by the police. In March this year the ZRP descended on Harvest House where the MDC has its main offices. Several small enterprises also operate from the building. In violation of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act and Constitution, which requires a reasonable suspicion of the commission of an offence, the police indiscriminately arrested everyone in the building, being customers of the small businesses, the business employees and MDC officials. Most of those arrested were detained for the day at Harare Central while a “screening” process took place. None were informed of the reason for their arrest. The group was whittled down to 18 MDC officials and members, some of whom had been arrested in different places around Harare. Under cover of darkness and over a period of two consecutive nights, the police then engaged in systematic torture of those remaining in custody. This torture consisted of brutal beatings that included falanga, a well-known torture technique in which the victim is beaten on the soles the feet. The torture appeared partly aimed at extracting confessions from the victims that they had been involved in the spate of petrol bomb attacks referred to in the ZRP reports. Unable to obtain any evidence in this manner, the police set about fabricating the same. After forcing one victim to sign a document confessing to various offences, the ZRP 43 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2003), Torture by State Agents in Zimbabwe: January 2001 to August 2002 & “Who Guards the Guards? Fn 41. 44 See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2006): An Analysis of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Legal Cases, 1998–2006. 45 S v Mabika & Ors CRB B472-84/07, delivered by Kamocha J on 24th July 2007.