extensive research on the official court records regarding the Food Riots, as well as an in-depth case study of one of the worst affected areas, Mabvuku Township. This report was submitted again with the appeal for an independent commission of inquiry. As was seen in that report, the facts that were established made a strong prima facie case that the principle of minimum force had been exceeded by the security forces. Neither of these two reports, nor the report of the UN Human Rights Committee, was acted upon by the Zimbabwe government. No commission of inquiry was ever constituted as requested by the UN Human Rights Committee, and hence the Human Rights Forum pursued the problem with the only means at its disposal – civil actions in the Zimbabwean courts. Since all these cases have now been concluded, it is appropriate to return the matter of the Food Riots, and to examine what has been learned as a consequence. It is particularly pertinent to do so when large-scale peaceful demonstrations are being threatened again by opposition groups, as well as there being the possibility, which the government itself acknowledges, that widespread rioting itself might take place owing to the intolerable living conditions that ordinary people now experience. This report provides a summary of the previous reports, with additional information obtained from an analysis of the completed court cases. 3