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Zimbabwean activist speaks about mysterious disappearances in new book

Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean activist has launched a book chronicling elements of injustice suffered by some Zimbabweans.

The book entitled The Abduction and Trial of Jestina Mukoko speaks mainly about the fight for Human Rights in Zimbabwe.

It highlights cases of abductions and the mysterious disappearances of individuals in the southern African country.

Thursday 5 May was the launch of the book The Abduction and Trial of Jestina Mukoko. 300 plus people attended. pic.twitter.com/B7z0Im8DZ8

— Informationdesk (@zppinfo) May 6, 2016

“The message that I want readers to take, is that this book does not just represent Jestina Mukoko, it’s representing other people who have not had a chance to write their story. I don’t think their stories are very different from mine. So this book is representing all those people, the victims and the survivors of enforced disappearance,” she said.

Mukoko is a former broadcast journalist and human rights activist who was abducted and tortured because of her work with the Zimbabwe Peace Project.

“I was not the first person to be abducted in Zimbabwe, neither have I been the last. So I think it’s a process of learning in terms of what happens when someone is forced to disappear. I strongly believe that I am a law abiding citizen. So I think that would be my message to the president that I never committed a crime, but what all this has caused me is a lot of pain not just to myself, but to my entire family, because what they went through is unimaginable,” she told AFP.

She still believes that her work as an activist contributed to her abduction because of the strong opinions expressed regarding the state.

“With the work that I do with the Zimbabwe Peace Project, we have been able to say things as they are, and I strongly believe that was the reason why I was abducted, because we were exposing political violence where it was happening and I think the intention was to muzzle the coming out of that information.”

She has received many local and international accolades for her work as an activist, among them, the United States Secretary of State Women of Courage Award.

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