Thousands of persons were interviewed and hundreds of cases were pursued over the course of several years to create this book. It includes magistrates courts, high courts, the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The book observes how the government of Sri Lanka and its agencies acted in the face of the serious complaints raised in these cases. The basis of the book is the detailed records of these cases. Two hundred cases of police torture, mostly from the South, have been summarised. The cases are from the areas under government control and from places far away from ethnic conflict.