11 officers, indicating an attitude that regards such violence as routine and mundane. At the police station, the arrested ZCTU members were subjected to systematic torture consisting of falanga and brutal beating all over their bodies. The victims sustained serious injuries including broken limbs. Mugabe commented on the widespread condemnation of the assaults stating “When the Police say move, you move”21 thus condoning the assaults and falsely suggesting that beating had occurred after the refusal of the ZCTU members to move from the road. While various other implausible excuses to explain the demonstrators’ injuries were offered for the benefit of the international community (e.g. that the injured had “fallen off the police van on the way to the police station”) nationally, as Mugabe’s statement makes clear, the government was content for the pubic to take note of the assaults upon the demonstrators and to learn a salutary lesson.22 In November 2006 a constitutional reform non-governmental organization, the NCA, tried to stage a demonstration to protest against a statement from President Mugabe that there was no need to have a new constitution. The head of the organization was arrested and taken away. The rest of the demonstrators were seated on the ground surrounded by the police in Africa Unity Square in the middle of Harare City. In full view of the public, the police officers viciously beat the unarmed and unresisting protestors all over their bodies. There is video footage of this beating. The police then ordered the protestors to run away. Although MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has indicated mass demonstrations will be held, these have not materialized. It is also clear that the human rights climate as a whole is deteriorating rather than improving. According to the statistics provided by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum in its Monthly Political Violence Reports, there has been an increase in the number of violations recorded in 2005,23 and the trend in 2006 is that this may well be the worst year on record since 2000. A total of 2,656 violations were recorded in 2004, and this increased to 4,132 in 2005, but already 21 22 23 This is what Mugabe said about the criminal assaults by the police upon unarmed and peaceful protesters whilst addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, September 23, 2006: ‘We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can’t have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force’. For a more detailed analysis of the use of torture by the Zimbabwe Republic Police see Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2006), Only bruises on the soles of their feet. The use of Falanga by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, November 2006, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. See Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (2006), An Analysis of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Legal Cases, 1998–2006. Published by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. June 2006, HARARE: ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM. Zimbabwe’s Failure to meet the Benchmarks in the Contonou Agreement