Constantine Chimakure
8 January 2009
STATE secret service agents allegedly assaulted, tortured and detained human rights activist Jestina Mukoko in solitary confinement for 19 days to coerce her to admit recruiting youths for military training in Botswana to dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power.
In an affidavit lodged with the High Court narrating events that took place after Mukoko was abducted in the early hours of December 3 from her Norton home, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director said her captors wanted to link her to the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC.
The government claims that the MDC is recruiting youths to undergo military training in Botswana in a move orchestrated to topple Mugabe.
Minister of State for National Security Didymus Mutasa has since admitted in the High Court that Mukoko was in the custody of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
In the damning affidavit, Mukoko claimed she was kidnapped by six men and a woman who did not identify themselves and was denied access to her spectacles and prevented from dressing.
"I was not wearing anything other than a night dress," she said. "I had no undergarments and other personal and medical requirements."
The former television news anchor alleged that she was forced by the state spies into a Mazda Familia vehicle and ordered to lie low on the seat of the car.
"Immediately a woollen jersey was put across my face, covering my eyes, nose and mouth (and) as a result I had problems breathing and almost suffocated," Mukoko said.
She said the vehicle drove off in what she suspected to be the Harare direction for about 40 minutes before reaching its destination.
By then, Mukoko claimed, she was disoriented.
She said a woman among the CIO operatives gave her a pair of plastic sandals and a dress and was kept for an hour before being taken to an interrogation room.
In the room, Mukoko said, a female agent asked her male compatriots to leave and provided her with underwear.
"I could not see the outside world through the windows. I was not allowed to look outside," she alleged. "Every time that I wanted to use the ablutions, I had to knock for a lengthy time and someone would come and had to cover my eyes with a blindfold and lead me to the toilet."
Mukoko alleged that on the first day of the kidnapping she was interrogated by five men and a woman who wanted to know more about the ZPP, its board members, founding organisations of the project and where it was located.
"Soon thereafter the line of questioning changed and I was now being accused of recruiting youths to undergo some form of military training and links with people at Harvest House (MDC headquarters). I denied the allegations."
The beatings then started.
"Firstly I was assaulted underneath my feet with a rubber-like object which was at least one metre long and flexible, while seated on the floor. Later I was told to raise my feet onto a table and the other people in the room started to assault me underneath my feet," Mukoko alleged. "This assault lasted for at least five to six minutes. They took a break and then continued again with the beatings."
Mukoko said she was further interrogated and asked if she knew of a police officer, Ricardo Washeni, who visited ZPP offices late last year.
She said she replied in the affirmative and told the CIO operatives that she referred Washeni to Broderick Takawira, a ZPP official.
Mukoko said that she was also asked about the people she knew at the MDC.
The interrogators allegedly took a break and returned a few hours later and "were all visibly drunk", and some of them started assaulting her and at the same time grilling her, she said.
Mukoko said she was questioned about her connections with the Counselling Services Unit and in particular Fidelis Mudimu, a nurse at the unit.
Mudimu was also accused of recruiting youths for military training.
On December 6 Mukoko said her captors provided her with new undergarments and sanitary pads before she was blindfolded and bundled into a car and driven for about two hours to an unknown destination.
At that destination, about 10 people who were introduced to her as law officers interrogated her.
One of the interrogators, Mukoko alleged, told her that she was going to suffer and had to make a choice of either becoming a state witness in the military training case or "become extinct" as no prosecutions would take place.
The ZPP boss said she was also grilled on her meeting with the Elders -- former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, ex-United States president Jimmy Carter, and children's ambassador Graca Machel -- in South Africa in November.
The Elders were barred from entering Zimbabwe on a humanitarian mission by the government and ended up meeting political parties and civic organisations in South Africa to get an appreciation of the humanitarian crisis in the country.
Mukoko claimed that the interrogators told her that they were not bound by the law stipulating that any accused person should appear in court within 48 hours of his or her arrest.
After the gruelling encounter with the interrogators, Mukoko was returned to the detention room and kept in solitary confinement until December 8 when she learnt that Takawira and another employee of the ZPP, Pascal Gonzo, were also abducted and were being interrogated.
The same day, Mukoko claimed, she was questioned and told that one of her officers at ZPP had confessed that Mudimu worked with the organisation.
Five days later, Mukoko said she was asked to sign a statement, which among other things, narrated the ZPP staff retreat to Botswana, including the names of individuals they met in the country.
"The interrogators also compelled me to disclose in the statement all the names of the board members of ZPP and staff members. I listed all. The last part of the statement wanted me to agree to knowing and recruiting this ex-police officer Ricardo Washeni (which) I denied," Mukoko said.
She claimed that at that point one of the interrogators went out of the room and returned with gravel which he spread onto the floor and asked her to pull up her clothes and kneel on the gravel.
"The interrogations continued whilst I was kneeling on the gravel," Mukoko alleged.
On December 14, a medical doctor examined Mukoko after she had complained that her allergies were getting worse. She was also further interrogated on the ZPP retreat to Botswana and her connection to Mudimu.
She claimed that she was forced to give evidence on camera.
Eight days later, Mukoko's captors handed her over to the police Law and Order section's Chief Superintendent Magwenzi at Braeside Police Station before she was blindfolded and driven to Highlands Police Station and later Matapi.
On December 23 the police recorded a warned and cautioned statement from her on camera and she was told for the first time that she was facing charges of attempting to recruit people for military training.
She was later taken to her Norton home where the police searched for her laptop and after failing to find it, seized an old computer, audio tapes from her past work as a journalist and computer information storage disks.
For the first time in 21 days she saw members of her family.
The following day she was taken to court and charged with eight other MDC activists.
Her lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, then approached the High Court and Justice Yunus Omerjee ordered the immediate release of Mukoko and her co-defendants on the basis of a previous court order declaring their detention for more than 48 hours illegal.
The state appealed against Omerjee's order to the Supreme Court and Mukoko and her co-accused were kept in custody.
On Tuesday, Mukoko lodged an urgent application in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of her continued detention on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
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I don't see how anyone could have expected any better, from people like Nelson Mandela who invented traditions like "necklacing."
The truth always comes out in the end, and everyone who was too stupid to recognize it pays the price, with interest compounded with every lie told.
Don't look to the west for charity, when the fall comes. We'll be dead and gone.
This whole thing is an embarrassment to every true ex-freedom fighters and to the spirits of all the genuine fallen heroes. I am really amazed that we as a people who sacrificed so much to attain our independence could stoop so low as to punish innocent Zimbabweans. What has happened to our ideals of freedom? My hair has turned gray I am now 63 years old and it hurts me seeing Zimbabweans suffering like what is happening. Why did we go to war then if our children can not exercise their political rights and participate in the affairs of the country? Is this not an attempt to render our sweat and tears during the war useless? Zvandidhuva ini chirimhazu.
Chirumhazu makuma Indeed we are now a laughing stalk in the world. We now leaving legacy of having failed to feed, educate or even provide decent life for our children because of misplaced priorities. Tonyarirepi manje? How can we then reclaim our dignity if we continue with such stupid and often evil activities? Stupidity crunch indeed.
Bhodlumlilo gt;
Only sellouts are now a "laughing stalk in the world" after failing to deliver Zimbabwe to imperialists on a sliver platter. All that you had promised to do when the Westminster Foundation channelled money through AMANI TRUST to create and financed the most hated monister in Zimbabwe - MDC and its sellout leader, Tsvangirai.
For sure "muchashaya kokunyarira gore rino". Go ahead muchikumburana like people who have just lost a close relative to CIA created syphilis but when you finish remember that ZIMBABWE WILL NEVER BE A COLONY AGAIN!!!
Tukunya ndebvu remember that lies will always fail you, what is your definition of sellout? Why it is everyone who opposes Mugabe is branded a sellout? You obviousely do not have a definition for an opposition member? According to Zanu PF – Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere now Morgan are sellouts. Do you honestly think Zimbabweans are as stupid to buy such crap definitions? Zanu PF supporters do not believe that anyone else can run this country or lead Zanu PF besides Mugabe. Any person who attempts would be branded a sellout and branded other fictitious claims about the West. When we say tichanyarirepi I mean as an ex-freedom fighter myself and others our contribution is being diminished by current events where the gains of our independence are now being into question. If you are a true liberator such acts occurring in this country do not put any value in our hard won independence where we fought for the right to self determination.
Bhodlumlilo gt;
Anyone who goes behind the back of other comrades and connives with the enemy to destroy the revolution is a SELLOUT. Anyone who supports the bombing of the people of Zimbabwe is a SELLOUT. Anyone who supports the training of militias to start a war in our motherland instead of seating down with those he does not agree with is a SELLOUT. Anyone who opposes land reclamation, and believes that whites have unfetted rights to cling to the land they got through conquest is a SELLOUT.
At no time was Nkomo called a SELLOUT - he was only told not to hold secret metings with Ian Smith behind the back of other freedom fighters as that would constitute SELLING OUT. No wonder why, after independence in 1982, Nkomo refused the offer by Boers to fund, arm and train "Super Zapu" elements. He was therefore never called a SELLOUT.
Nyathi started off as a promising freedom fighter but he SOLD OUT when he connived with the enemy to kill freedom fighters at Nyadzonya. Ndabaningi Sithole SOLD OUT when he created CHIMWENJE and teamed up with Smith to fight those who were fighting for freedom.
Morgan Tsvangirai is currently SELLING OUT by conniving with imperialists to make Zimbabweans suffer under sanctions. He called and campaigned for these sanctions all over Europe and America and now they are biting us - that is SELLING OUT. Tsvangirai connived with the CIA and MI5 to create a rebel force (along the lines of Unita and Renamo) that is being or was being trained in Botswana - SELLING OUT.
He has refused to go along with the deal he signed on 15 Sept 2008 because Jendayi Fraser and McGee told him so - SELLING OUT. He has failed to respect SADC leaders and went further to call them "cowards" as per the instructions from the American and British regimes - SELLING OUT.
You are also part of this SELLING OUT click that is trying to destroy Zimbabwe and reverse all the gains of the struggle and yet you call yourself a freedom fighter. How can you call yourself a freedom fighter who went to war with his heart and mind to the liberation struggle when you do not know why you went to war in the first place? Which war did you fight when you can not see that imperialists, whom we fought just yesterday, have never forgiven us for taking back what rightly belongs to us - OUR LAND? What kind of a freedom fighter are you, who, after spending years in the bush uchirumwa nenda, uchirumwa ne humhutu, uchinaiwa nemvura, uchitonhorwa nechando, uchifa nenzara, thinks that the war ended in 1980 when we got political independence?
What kind of a freedom fighter are you who does not know that we have only entered a new phase of the struggle to totally liberate ourselves from the york of imperialism and colonialism? You are a SELLOUT if you do not know or does not see that Zimbabwe is under attack from the Wester who want to destroy all that President Mugabe has achieved for Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans since 1980. You are a SELLOUT if you do not want to acknowledge that cholera and anthrax were created at a research station in Matopo to kill freedom fighters during the war.
You are not different from Muzorewa, Sithole and Nyathi if you advocate for the bombing of Zimbabwe to oust President Mugabe simply because he has prevented imperialists from looting our natural resources - Chiadzwa Diamond. If, therefore, you want to define a SELLOUT, just look yourself in the mirror and you will see one.
If Barak Obama was to advocated for the bombing of Israel for massacring Palestinians, he will be called a SELLOUT. If he was to denounce the Vietnam war, he will be labelled a SELLOUT. If he was to criticise the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he will be labelled a SELLOUT.
This, therefore, means that an opposition party or individual has to be patriotic to national issues in its or her/his opposition so that s/he does not fight against national interests which are permanent as opposed to personal interests which are temporary.
The "war on imperialism" is entering a "new phase" where the brave freedom fighters are required to contract cholera, because this hurts the west... somehow. Followed soon by the next phase, in which the freedom fighters are required to dig their own graves, then stay in them until they starve to death in the name of Robert Mugabe.
That'll teach those western imperialists!
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Where is the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and smell no evil SADC and is's chief partner the disapointed no good South Africa? What are they saying about the kidnapping and turturing of Zimbabweans?
I regret the role we all played regarding the emancipation of South Africa. Now look at the position South Africa has taken. South Africa has has a chance to reciprocate the goodwill rope thrown to them by the world by helping to to end the agony of Zimbabweans. It has chosen to side with the devil.
The will of the people will prevail at all cost with or without the help of the ungrateful South Africa and the incompetent SADC.