7 Findings Of the total group more than half (56%) had a total score on the SRQ-8 of four or more2. 17% of this group scored higher than seven. Two clients had suicidal tendencies and were referred back to Amani who then referred them to a psychiatrist for medication. Seventy-eight percent of the group had been physically tortured and 65% had experienced emotional torture. The physical torture largely involved being beaten (kicked, punched, hit with a weapon, attempted suffocation, and rolling naked on hot sand) and the emotional torture mostly involved being threatened and/or humiliated. The threats included death threats and further beatings. Also, threats were made regarding physical torture for the client’s spouse (in most cases wives) including rape and sexual assault. In some cases it was announced publicly within the community that it was permissible for anyone to have sexual relations with the victim’s wife. Emotional torture accompanied the physical torture in most cases. Forty-seven percent of the group had experienced extreme humiliation that included being stripped naked in front of a large group, women in the group laughing at the person’s nakedness, and the person being made to act like an animal (barking like a dog and/or leaping like a frog were the most common). The following is an excerpt from one client’s story. His story was very similar to most of the client’s experiences. “… youths came to my home to destroy my property and took away property that was meant for a bridge. After a while they came and abducted me and took me to their base. I was severely beaten. I got many lashes. They used a bicycle chain. After that I was released. They came again after three weeks, they tortured me. (Again later)….they abducted me. They said they had failed to make us do what they wanted. They took us to the war vets at Base Twleve. There we were undressed. They tied our hands and legs and we were severely beaten. They threw me into a hole and was ordered to bark like a dog. When they took me out they applied an itchy plant all over my body. Our area is extremely hot so we were made to roll in very hot sand. We had to do army drills until our bodies had blisters all over because of the hot sand and the itchy plant. They beat us again and poured water on us because we were critical. They left us there and we struggled to walk home.” 2 The SRQ-8, or the Self-Reporting Questionnaire-8, is an 8-item psychiatric screening instrument that was developed in Zimbabwe, and has been widely used in epidemiological and other psychiatric investigations. It was developed from the SRQ-20, an instrument developed by the World Health Organisation. All scores in excess of 4 on the SRQ-8 are indicative of psychiatric disorder, but do not indicate the type of psychiatric disorder. AMANI Trust: At the boiling point of the pain. Report of a pilot study examining the eficacy of psychotherapy for torture survivors.