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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of articles on enforced disappearances in Zimbabwe
Further
information on enforced disappearance/ fear for safety/ prisoners
of conscience
Amnesty International
January 06, 2009
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR46/006/2009/en
The government
has ignored more than one court order to release two members of
the Zimbabwe
Peace Project as well as thirty human rights activists and members
of the Movement for Democratic Change. Police have ignored a court
order to arrange for medical attention.
Jestina Mukoko,
the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), is being held
at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare. Broderick Takawira,
a provincial coordinator of the ZPP, who was abducted on 8 December
2008, and some 30 human rights activists and political activists
from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who were abducted
between October and December 2008, are also now known to be held
at various detention facilities in Harare. The Zimbabwean authorities
have repeatedly failed to comply with court orders to release them.
Amnesty International considers Jestina Mukoko and Broderick Takawira
to be prisoners of conscience, held in violation of their rights
to freedom of expression and association.
On 5 January
2009 a High Court judge in Harare ruled that police must comply
with an earlier High Court order for Jestina Mukoko, Broderick Takawira,
and the MDC activists to be taken to a hospital to receive a medical
examination and treatment, following allegations that they were
tortured while they were in custody. The police have not yet complied
with these orders.
Jestina Mukoko,
who was abducted from her home on 3 December 2008, was left by her
"abductors" at Matapi Police Station on 23 December
2008. Police had previously denied arresting her and had told the
High Court in Harare that they were treating the case as a kidnapping.
The state-controlled
Herald newspaper has reported that Jestina Mukoko and Broderick
Takawira, together with eight of the detained MDC activists, were
to be charged with "recruiting or attempting to recruit people
for the purposes of undergoing military training to overthrow the
Government." It is not clear whether they have now been formally
charged. The accusations against the activists are widely believed
to be fabricated.
Background
information
The abduction, unlawful arrest and detention of the human rights
workers and MDC activists is consistent with a pattern of human
rights violations documented by Amnesty International since March
2007 when 32 MDC activists were arrested and charged with bombing
police stations. The activists were allegedly tortured and denied
access to their lawyers. The charges against the MDC activists were
later dropped.
The practice
of unlawful arrest and detention is one of the established tactics
employed by the Zimbabwean authorities to intimidate and harass
critics. The ZPP is one of the leading organisations in Zimbabwe
involved in monitoring and documenting human rights violations,
including state-sponsored beatings, torture and killings in the
run-up to the 27 June elections.
Human rights
defenders in Zimbabwe operate in a very restrictive environment.
They face repeated arrests, torture and ill-treatment, intimidation
and harassment by state security forces and other non-state actors
aligned to President Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union
- Patriotic Front.
Amnesty International
documented several cases of enforced disappearances similar to that
of Jestina Mukoko last year. Some of the victim's bodies were later
found dumped. The Zimbabwean authorities have been unwilling to
investigate these cases of enforced disappearances, including politically
motivated killings of human rights defenders and political activists.
Please renew
your appeals by:
- urging the
Zimbabwean authorities to immediately and unconditionally release
Jestina Mukoko and Broderick Takawira whom Amnesty International
considers to be prisoners of conscience;
- calling
for the 30 human rights activists and MDC activists abducted between
October and December 2008 to be either charged or released immediately
and unconditionally;
- stating
concern over the reported torture of Jestina Mukoko and other
detainees in custody;
- calling
on the Zimbabwean authorities to ensure that all those in their
custody are treated according to internationally agreed standards
for the treatment of persons in state custody including guaranteeing
their freedom from torture and other ill-treatment;
- expressing
concern that the Zimbabwean authorities are undermining the decisions
of the High Court in order to facilitate the continuation of human
rights violations;
- urging the
Attorney General of Zimbabwe and the Commissioner General of Police
to investigate allegations of unlawful arrest, unlawful detention
and reported torture of all the detainees including Jestina Mukoko
and Broderick Takawira.
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