Will Jestina be home for Christmas?

By Miriam Mannak

It has been over three weeks since Jestina Mukoko, one of Zimbabwe’s most prominent human rights activists, disappeared without a trace.

Mukoko, the executive director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was kidnapped on December 3 after 15 police officers burst into her home in Norton, a small town situated 40km outside <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Zimbabwe’s Capital of Harare.

“They assaulted her caretaker and took her away,” said Abel Chikomo of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum in an interview with the Times. Apparently, her teenage son witnessed the incident.

Five days after Mukoko disappeared, two of her co-workers were abducted as well.

The international community has been waiting for a sign of life, and President Robert Mugabe has been asked over and over to set Mukoko and her co-workers free. As expected, the president is stubbornly denying his government involvement in the abductions.

Two weeks ago, the Zimbabwean high court ordered the police to search for Mukoko and find out where she is. No progress has been made so far.

Over the past eight years, the Zimbabwe Peace Project has been involved in recording, monitoring and cataloguing incidents of violence and human rights abuses across the country. One of the main pillars of the project is a network of hundreds of monitors - people who provide detailed and reliable accounts of the campaigns of brutality across the country.

Thanks to the project, detailed records are available of thousands of incidents of murder, assault, torture, arson and other violations of human rights in Zimbabwe.