An MDC activist who was abducted by state security agents last year in December, and was kept in captivity at an unknown location, finally escaped his abductors after 6 months. Twenty-nine year old Peter Munyanyi was abducted by 3 men in a white single-cab CAM truck, at Utsinda Business Centre in Gutu on the 13th December. He was one of a number of activists still reported missing, even after the unity government was formed in February.

Narrating his ordeal Munyanyi told the MDC Changing Times newsletter that the abductors assaulted him and tried to force him into the car. He says at first he managed to wrestle free and run away. 'One of them then started firing shots at me and when the third shot was fired I panicked and fell to the ground,' he said. After collapsing he says he could not recollect what happened. He was soon to find himself locked up in a dark room without any blankets, clothing or toilet facilities.

The beating Munyanyi received was so bad he sustained a broken arm and a missing tooth. He did not receive any medical attention and resorted to using the T-shirt he was wearing during the abduction as an arm sling. His meals during captivity were nothing more than sadza and salt, for relish. For 6 months he says he did not know whether he would ever see his wife Jacqueline and 3 year old son Malvern. 'I would sleep on the floor and after every two weeks, I was given a bucket of water for cleaning the room since I had to relieve myself in that very room,' he says.

His abductors tortured him on a weekly basis but weirdly, never said a word to him. On the 29th June this year one of them paid a visit to the room and inexplicably left the door open on leaving. Munyanyi bolted out, scaled a fence and walked in the bush for 4 days until he got to Filabusi in Matabeleland South province. He managed to get bus fare from a good Samaritan and traveled to Masvingo. Despite the ordeal Munyanyi has vowed that he will remain an active and dedicated supporter of the MDC and will continue working for the party.

In October the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of 50 civil society groups, demanded that the government produce the estimated 8 activists who were still missing. Speaking for the Coalition Elinor Sisulu said; 'We continue to be worried about the fate of the missing activists and we want the government to produce them or immediately or carry out investigations into their whereabouts. The coming of the new government should not mean that we forget about the eight missing activists. We must as civil society keep on putting the pressure and asking questions.'

The missing activists had been listed as Gwenzi Kahiya from Zvimba, Ephraim Mabeka, Lovemore Machokoto, Charles Muza, Edmore Vangirayi all from Gokwe, Graham Matehwa from Makoni South and Peter Munyanyi from Gutu South who has since managed to escape. There has always been some confusion as to whether it is 7 or 8 activists who were missing.

A senior MDC official told Newsreel Monday that reports suggesting that some of the activists had escaped into the Diaspora were not true. 'Unless whoever said that meant that shallow graves are the new Diaspora then they don't know what they are talking about,' the official told us. His comments suggest many in the party fear that the activists may have already been killed.

But the reappearance of Peter Munyanyi will give some hope to the families.