‘Army lying about soldier’s disappearance’

By Tichaona Sibanda
20 November 2006

A Zimbabwe National Army officer who has been in detention for allegedly aiding a plot to assassinate Robert Mugabe has escaped from the military barracks where he was being held.

Captain Alfred Chiukira was due to appear before a military court martial last week, but the trial was postponed and the army never gave any reasons.

But the MDC MP for Mutare North Giles Mutsekwa, said he finds it difficult to believe that Army captain Alfred Chiukira escaped from King George VI barracks last week Friday.

Mutsekwa, a former Major in the army said Chiukira’s ‘escape’ is hard to believe considering that he was being held inside a military fortress which is more secure than Chikurubi, the country’s top security prison.

‘The army should not lie that he escaped. They should tell us they just let him go. The man had no case to answer. This was a man facing charges of trying to kill the President. He was a priority prisoner, with guards watching him every minute and we are told he escaped. This is a story made up, I believe they just let him go,’ Mutsekwa said.

The Zimbabwe Standard reported that a soldier guarding Chiukira woke up at King George V1 barracks on Saturday morning around 4.30 only to discover the prisoner had disappeared.

The paper added that Chiukira pretended he was taking a late night bath, turned on the shower and fled. When his guard woke up hours later, the shower had not been turned off. Chiukira had been languishing in detention incommunicado, for the last six months. His plight came to light last week when the Zimbabwe Standard made enquiries about his continued detention without trial.

He was detained in March following accusations that he was an informant of Peter Hitschmann, an ex-Rhodesian soldier under trial for allegedly masterminding a plot to assassinate Mugabe during this year’s 21st February celebrations in Mutare. It is alleged Hitschmann and his co-conspirators intended to spill used oil on the Christmas Pass section of the Mutare highway to cause an accident involving Mugabe’s motorcade.