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December 10, 2008
President Robert G. Mugabe
Office of the President
Munhumutapa Building
Samora Machel Avenue
Box 7700 Causeway
Harare, Zimbabwe
Fax: 011 263 4 734 644
Dear President,
We are writing to express our great concern over the desperate conditions that have developed in Zimbabwe. Defence for Children International-Canada has close ties to child advocates and active communication with many other human rights organizations who work in the country.
Our immediate concern is the safety of the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Jestina Mukoko, who was forcibly taken from her home on December 3, 2008, by a group of armed plain-clothes men who identified themselves as policemen. Her current whereabouts remain unknown. According to an eyewitness more than a dozen men, believed to be state security agents, stormed her home in Norton and took her by force while still barefoot and dressed in her pajamas. The men then drove off in two cars, one of which did not have registration plates.
We understand that Jestina Mukoko’s abduction is consistent with an established pattern of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders by the Zimbabwean authorities in an attempt to discourage them from documenting and publicizing the human rights violations that are taking place.
We have full documentation of several cases of enforced disappearances similar to that of Jestina Mukoko this year alone. Some of the victim’s bodies were later found. Authorities have been unwilling to investigate these cases of enforced disappearances, including politically motivated killings of human rights defenders and political activists.
We are, naturally, troubled with fears for Jestina Mukoko’s safety and would regard any continued threats of hurt to her as a sign of determination to destroy human rights for any one who criticizes the authorities.
We call on the Zimbabwean authorities to disclose the whereabouts of Jestina Mukoko and not to ill treat her. This includes allowing Jestina Mukoko access to her lawyer and her family as well as food, water, warm clothes and medication.
We also call on the Zimbabwean authorities to immediately end its practice of enforced disappearances and follow international standards on arrest and detention for persons under criminal investigation. And, we call on the Zimbabwean authorities to immediately investigate all those responsible for the enforced disappearances, including those who sanctioned it and bring them to account.
And we, with particular emphasis on our mandate to identify violations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, protest the total disregard of the rights of children.
We join the international community in condemning these human rights violations and call for a viable system of justice for Zimbabwe.
Sincerely yours,
| Les Horne Executive Director |
Agnes Samler President |
