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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of articles on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe
Release
Jestina Mukoko!
Civil Society Organizations
December
03, 2008
We, the undersigned
organizations, register our serious distress and concern on the
news received this morning concerning the abduction of Zimbabwe
Peace Project Director, Jestina Mukoko. Ms Mukoko was reported
as having been forcefully taken from her home in Norton Harare,
at 5am, this morning still wearing her nightdress. Her abductors
are suspected CIO and police agents. The fifteen armed men were
in plain clothes, driving a Mazda Familia with no registration plates.
Mukoko's child, who witnessed the abduction, alerted fellow human
rights organizations immediately and human rights' defenders are
now checking at police stations in and around Harare to ascertain
her whereabouts. We call for the immediate release of Ms Mukoko
by Zimbabwean authorities. The Zimbabwe Peace Project has worked
tirelessly over the last several years in systematically documenting
violence and torture across the country through its network of Peace
Monitors.
This development
comes as the security situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate,
despite all political parties having committed themselves in the
September agreement to ensuring that continued violations of human
rights and the use of violence, abductions and torture will cease.
The abduction of Jestina follows the lifting of the ban on the operations
of various civil society organizations. We condemn unreservedly
the ongoing persecution of human rights defenders. As per the September
15 agreement,
the ZANU PF regime has a responsibility to ensure that all state
security structures respect the rule of law, that militia groups
are disbanded, and that those responsible for these abuses are held
to account.
The abduction
of Jestina Mukoko is ample demonstration of the need for all stakeholders
to intensify efforts to bring to an end the humanitarian and political
crisis unfolding. We call on the South African government and other
regional leaders to act decisively in this matter by demanding the
immediate release of Justina Mukoko and to further put pressure
on the Zimbabwean government to abandon the use of terror and intimidation,
and use every leverage at their disposal for the quick resolution
of Zimbabwe's crisis.
Signed:
- Centre for
the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
- Institute
for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR)
- Institute
for Democracy in Southern Africa (IDASA)
- Freedom House
Southern Africa - (FHSA)
- Heinreich
Boll Foundation Southern Africa
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