Many activists go missing in Zimbabwe crackdown

They came for Zimbabwe human rights activist Jestina Mukoko at dawn, nearly two weeks ago, according to her son, a witness. About 15 men, some with pistols, took her barefoot from her house in Norton, north of Harare, not even allowing her to change out of her nightclothes or find her eyeglasses. Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, has not been seen since, and relatives believe she is in official custody. Police deny having arrested her.

“We worry for her life,” said Mukoko’s aunt, Rudo Sanyanga, 44, in a recent interview in Harare, the capital. “We know that people have been abducted, killed, left for dead. People have been subjected to all kinds of torture.”

In the last six weeks, 22 opposition or civil rights activists have been seized and not heard from since, according to rights group Amnesty International. The disappearances have occurred as the nation’s September deal to create a unity government founders. The power-sharing arrangement between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, was signed after disputed elections in March and June, but talks on its implementation have stalled.

About two weeks ago, MDC security chief Chris Dhlamini was abducted in broad daylight by five men, relatives say. Dhlamini did not show fear, nor let his family know there was anything wrong when he was taken away. He even joked with his abductors, said his nephew, Washington Cheya, 21, who witnessed the kidnapping.

“He hugged his last-born son for almost a minute,” said Cheya recently in Harare. After a few minutes, Cheya said, he tried to call his uncle, but the phone was switched off. “By then I was worried.”

Last week, Gandhi Mudzwinga, a close ally of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was forced into a car in a Harare suburb, according to the party.

Two other employees of Mukoko’s Zimbabwe Peace Project, Broderick Takawira and Pascal Gonzo, were forced into a car by men in civilian clothes and taken away the same day, according to the organization.

Others said to have been seized include Zacharia Nkomo, 33, brother of leading human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo, taken from his home in Masvingo on Dec. 5, according to Amnesty International. Among those missing is a 2-year-old boy who was taken along with his parents who were among a group of 15 activists seized in Banket, 55 miles north of Harare, six weeks ago.

The reason for the upsurge in abductions is unclear, but one senior ruling party official said hard-line “securocrats” and generals under Mugabe have wanted to see the unity government deal collapse. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from the regime for speaking to a Western journalist.

With cholera and hunger killing hundreds of Zimbabweans, the West has hardened its position, calling on Mugabe to leave power, while African nations continue to support the troubled power-sharing efforts.

Last week President Bush said it was time for Mugabe to go. At United Nations meetings scheduled to begin today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to press for tougher action against Zimbabwe, particularly by southern African states.

Mugabe, for his part, has threatened new elections unless the opposition accepts his terms on a unity government.

The regime’s rhetoric has become increasingly strident in recent days, accusing Britain and the U.S. of spreading cholera in an act of biological warfare and claiming the West is planning an invasion. Mugabe also alleges that his political opponents have set up military training camps in Botswana, a claim strongly denied by the neighboring country.

The government has denied Tsvangirai a passport, and he is currently outside Zimbabwe. Mugabe, 84, last week called him a political prostitute for meeting leaders abroad.

“Why . . . would one globe-trot to Germany, to the Netherlands, to Botswana, to Senegal, visiting all these countries?” he said. “We don’t want that prostitution.”

Mukoko, the abducted peace project director, is one of Mugabe’s sharpest critics, cataloging violence and human rights abuses by his regime.

“We have been to so many police stations in Harare,” said Takudzwa Dizha, 17, Mukoko’s son. “They have all denied they are holding her.”

Some analysts speculate that Mukoko’s work on documenting violence and abuses made her a particular target, because leading officials are afraid of prosecution under a potential new political order.

Last week, Harare judge Anne Gowora ordered police to search for Mukoko in all detention facilities and that advertisements on her disappearance be placed in newspapers.

A former official of the Central Intelligence Organization, citing senior sources, said the activists had been seized by a military intelligence group, the Special Air Services, and would be accused of preparing to launch an insurrection from training camps in Botswana. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.

The senior ZANU-PF official said the Botswana story was untrue and the arrests were designed to intimidate the opposition. He said moderates in the party strongly opposed such measures.

“There are a lot of people in the government who are going to lose out if there’s a government of national unity. Things are going to be run differently,” he said. They “are assiduously working to ensure that the deal doesn’t stick. They are working day and night to ensure the deal is scuttled.

“People know that when they’re out, they will be prosecuted,” the official said. “You know the riskiest job . . . is to be president because if you do corrupt things, they will go for you when you are out of office. People are being made to account for their misdemeanors when they’re in office.”

The MDC says the arrests are destructive to the power-sharing deal.

“The biggest sucker punch to dialogue relates to the abductions of civic society and MDC leaders and activists, including 2-year-old children,” said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa in a statement last week.

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com