Zapu suspicious nof exhumations

 March 18  2011 ---ZAPU wishes to comment on the exhumation of remains of victims of Rhodesian atrocities, which have received massive coverage on Zanu-PF controlled national television, radio and print media.

Zapu believes the exhumations have been engineered by Zanu-PF to stir emotions among the people for its own political mileage towards elections. For the avoidance of any doubt, Zapu, the founder and authentic liberation movement of Zimbabwe, fully supports the exposure of war time atrocities by all parties, but would be happier if there was also an exposure and exhumation of mass graves of our supporters massacred by Zanu-PF’s Gukurahundi forces between 1982 and 1987. What makes the Gukurahundi case worse than the Rhodesian atrocities is that it was perpetrated by a black government on black people, simply because they belonged to a different tribe or they supported a rival political movement.

Gukurahundi evidence is plenty and fresh, with some of the architects of the genocide, namely Parence Shiri, Emmerson Mnangagwa and others still with us and can make the task easier by volunteering evidence and pin-pointing the mass graves we do not yet know. We are afraid Zanu-managed exhumations may be used to cover-up evidence of Gukurahundi atrocities. 

While Rhodesians can defend themselves that they committed the atrocities in a war situation and they also suffered casualties, can the same be said about Zanu-PF’s Gukurahundi? Victims of Gukurahundi also deserve decent burials like those of the Rhodesian forces. What is fair and just for the people buried in a disused mine shaft in Mazowe must also surely be good for people thrown into disused mine shafts and Bhalagwe Mountain in Kezi.

Zapu is pleased that law experts such as Jonathan Samkange and Lovemore Madhuku stated categorically on national television that it is possible to institute legal proceedings against members of the Rhodesian forces and against the former colonial power Britain for atrocities committed during the war of liberation. We wish ZBC’s chief correspondent Reuben Barwe could ask them the same question about Gukurahundi.  Zapu is anxious to hear their expert legal opinion on who is culpable for Gukurahundi atrocities.

Zapu wishes to make it clear to Zanu-PF that Gukurahundi atrocities will never be swept under the carpet. All the people of Matabeleland are asking for is genuine apology, truth, healing, compensation and closure. Without this, it would be impossible for Zimbabwe to move ahead as one country in a post-Mugabe era, which surely beckons after the next elections, if not before.

If Rhodesian atrocities were a violation of human rights as Madhuku and Samkange explained, it follows that Gukurahundi atrocities were an even worse violation of human rights, unless if someone believes Ndebeles or Zapu supporters are not human beings.

In the meantime, Zapu is seriously considering organizing the exhumation of Gukurahundi victims for the world to see and appreciate what Gukurahundi was all about.

Thank you.

Methuseli Moyo

Director Communication and Marketing