People Don’t Disappear Into Thin Air, Someone, Knows Where Itai Dzamara Is -Amnesty International Pleads
Global Human rights movement Amnesty International-Zimbabwe has pleaded with the government of Zimbabwe to establish the whereabouts of journalist-cum-activist Itai Dzamara who disappeared on 9 March 2015.
Dzamara who led a sit-in movement dubbed the Occupy Africa Unity Square, demanded the former President Robert Mugabe to step down following his 2013 victory citing the poor economic administration and bad governance.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Itai Dzamara commemorative event Amnesty International Director Jessica Pwiti called on authorities to investigate the whereabouts of the activist.
“People do not just disappear into the thin air. Someone knows where Itai Dzamara is and we demand that they bring him back,” she said.
Pwiti urged citizens to help the Dzamara family through providing psycho-social support.
“We continue to make a cry; we send out press statements, we have events such as this. We engage Sheffra even in our offices and we have kept her cry live and sometimes she is even asking for support,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, in a statement read on its behalf by its Deputy Chairperson Chester Samba criticised the new dispensation for failing to show urgency in its search for Dzamara.
“The ‘new dispensation’ prides itself on being reformists. However, the continued abductions and torture of citizens speak to a chilling intolerance to dissent and critique and a State bent on consolidating power at the expense of fundamental human rights of citizens,” he said.
Dzamara disappeared in Glenview 7, Harare after being dragged into an unmarked vehicle by an unknown man when he was taking a haircut at a local barbershop.
Since then efforts to locate him have been futile with some opposition Member of Parliament demanding the government to provide his whereabouts.
The High Court of Zimbabwe also ordered the government of Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to do regular updates on their investigations, efforts which human rights groups say have been in vain.
