Stop the hypocrisy: address the Gukurahundi massacres
The coalition government upon its formation set up a fully fledged organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Reintegration chaired by the three parties in government to deal with national healing and reconciliation issues. The process has faced credibility questions because of President Mugabe’s refusal to openly apologise for the military-led onslaught on innocent civilians in the 1980s referred to as the Gukurahundi, as well as the organ’s failure to address political tensions caused by decades of state-sponsored conflict.
Recently, Hwange Magistrate Collet Ncube on Tuesday 15 May 2012 dismissed the state's case against national healing Minister Moses Mzila Ndlovu who was accused of allegedly uttering statements on Gukurahundi deemed prejudicial to the State saying the evidence against him was not reliable. Minister Ndlovu was arrested in April last year alongside Roman Catholic Church priest Father Marko Mnkandla after they addressed victims of the Gukurahundi massacres at Silwanyana Primary School in Lupane. The MDC-T MP for Magwegwe, Felix Sibanda Mafa also received death threats following his remarks on the Gukurahundi massacres and his intentions to lobby for the introduction of a private members' Bill to force Parliament to enact legislation to provide for compensation of victims of the Gukurahundi massacres. The arrests and persecution show how issues of reconciliation and national healing remain emotive because of government’s lethargy in dealing with human rights issues. It is also reflective of the government’s protracted effort to bar the Gukurahundi question from public debate.
A report by the Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace released in 1997 estimated that at least 20 000 people in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions were massacred by the North Korean-trained army brigade between 1983 and 1987. Mugabe has never publicly apologised for the atrocities. The only time the 86-year-old leader came near to acknowledging his culpability in the massacres was when he referred to the period as “a moment of madness” in 1999.
President Robert Mugabe and top officials of the military should acknowledge and apologise for the state-sponsored ethnic killings in Matabeleland. Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent ill-timed comments that the Gukurahundi atrocities are a “closed chapter” is a cause for concern. Mnangagwa, who is one of the top Zanu PF officials and security chiefs blamed for the killings, told state media that the 1987 Unity Accord had closed the Gukurahundi chapter. It cannot be true that the wounds were closed, and the Gukurandi issue is not a closed chapter and it is not possible to sweep the matter under the carpet before victims get compensation or know the truth about the killings. Bulawayo Governor and Zanu-PF Deputy National Spokesperson Cain Mathema last month labelled as "stupid and daft" politicians and civic society leaders clamouring for compensation for victims of the 1980s' Gukurahundi massacres.
It seems the national healing organ is just a ploy to fool the international Community s to lift sanctions on the basis that there is progress towards truth, justice and reconciliation.. The government must compensate victims of Gukurahundi and also those of the 2008 politically motivated violence, in the same spirit that it rewarded war veterans for their role in the liberation struggle. In the same manner victims of the 2005 clean-up campaign, termed operation Murambatsvina, must also be compensated. Although compensation will not bring back the lives lost or heal wounds of the offended there is need for the government to start somewhere by acknowledging that there was some wrong doing on the part of the government and it will not be repeated again.
Findings of previous commissions set by President Robert Mugabe, which never reached the public, should be open to public scrutiny so that remedies can be prescribed. Zanu PF has always been on the back foot on national healing and reconciliation, particularly having failed to demonstrate their willingness to address them. Given this, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition calls for a fresh inquiry into the National healing debate and a more inclusive and victim centred approach which takes into consideration the issue of justice. Those who committed atrocities and other violent acts against innocent citizens must be brought to book so that the issue of national healing is brought to its logical conclusion.