Pressure mounts on government to solve disappearance

Pressure mounted on Zimbabwe’s government this week to solve the disappearance of Patrick Nabanyama, an activist of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who went missing at the height of a violent campaign ahead of last’s June parliamentary election, ‘The Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday.

Zimbabwean human rights activists commemorating the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture said Nabanyama’s disappearance was torture to his family, friends and the MDC.

Nabanyama, an election agent for MDC legislator David Coltart, was dragged screaming out of his home in Bulawayo’s Nketa high-density suburb by government supporters and has never been seen since then.

“This is another case that involves torture,” said Shari Eppel, a director with Amani Trust, an NGO dedicated to the rehabilitation of torture victims. “The perpetrators of that violence are known but the case seems to have been stalled,” she said. “Torture is bad for a democracy and if people see that the government is doing nothing to condemn it, they will surely use it as it’s happening every time there are elections in Zimbabwe.” Clement Moyo, the acting national chairman of ZimRights, said: “What is needed is an aggressive voter education campaign for us to counter political violence”.

The UN set 26 June as the international day to remember victims of violence and torture. In Bulawayo, the day was commemorated by the staging of a news conference at which speakers spoke against politically motivated violence. Eppel urged Zimbabwean journalists and other human rights activists to lobby the government to ratify the UN Convention against torture. MDC legislator Mike Auret last month moved a motion in Parliament for Zimbabwe to endorse the convention that has been ratified by about 80 countries such as Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi.