Matabele Massacre Condemned
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Harare – A top official of President Robert Mugabe’s party has issued an
unprecedented condemnation of the massacres of up to 20 000 civilians of
Zimbabwe’s minority Ndebele people three decades ago. Jonathan Moyo, a member of the powerful politburo of the ZanuPF party that
came to power in 1980, was quoted in the party-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper
saying that the massacres were "a dark point in our history". The comment was seen as a sign of deepening strife within the formerly
monolithic ruling party.
The killings were carried out by Mugabe’s security forces during a low-level insurgency during the early 1980s in the western province of Matabeleland, home of the Ndebele-speaking tribe. The government’s reaction was "outrageously disproportionate" to the threat, Moyo said, although he stopped short of calling for an investigation. There have been no reparations made to families of the victims and no apologies.........
Mugabe loyalists demand he should be "president for life," but a large younger group – with Moyo as apparent spokesperson – insist that he will be too frail to undertake an election campaign.
Mugabe...... won more votes than Mugabe in the last election earlier that year, but
Mugabe effectively seized power after a national campaign of murder and torture
targeting Tsvangirai’s supporters.
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You might get
the impression from Western reportage that it is about political parties. In
fact it is about tribes. Admitting the truth would hinder BBC
propaganda complaining about our Racism
Sokwanele Reports 7 Thousand Murders
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To stem an insurrection in its southern province,
Zimbabwe's post-independence government massacred an estimated 7,000 civilians
between 1980 and 1988. The Catholic Church has compiled a report titled,
Breaking the Silence - Building True Peace based on the testimonies of 1,000
witnesses.............
As if to confirm its notoriety, the Fifth Brigade - a North Korea-trained unit - soon got bored with merely interrogating its captives on the whereabouts of the armed rebels who were fighting President Robert Mugabe's government..............
But President Robert Mugabe has refused to give an apology for the massacres saying that it "it is not unusual for people to die in a war situation." He has even refused to entertain suggestions that the victims' surviving relatives must be compensated. The President contends that the legitimate government of Zimbabwe had a right to use any method to stem the tide of insurrection.........
Conservative members of his government point out that the Ndebele, Zimbabwe's minority tribe that was deeply opposed to the Mugabe presidency turned down the offer of peace at independence in 1980...............
Then in August 1981, 106 instructors arrived from communist North Korea and began training what was to be known as Fifth Brigade or Gukurahundi - Shona for "the rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rain". The Brigade was made up of Shona-speaking recruits totally sympathetic to the Mugabe regime The Shona tribe constitutes more that 80% of the Zimbabwean population. The insurrection in the south was borne out of a feeling common among the Ndebeles that the Mugabe government was out to finish them. President Mugabe is Shona...................
The CCJP was also vocal against the excesses of former white supremacist Ian
Smith. It published a report on Civil War in Rhodesia and Mugabe cannot
therefore accuse it of being one-sided.
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This report is honest about the tribal nature of these massacres but hostile to
Sir Ian Smith alleging his
excesses. Naturally they are not specified. That would be telling lies or
reciting trivia that make Mugabe look even worse. The claim of 5, 000 to 7,000
deaths contrasts with the Wiki's story of 20,000 Matabele minimum. See the next
one.
Zimbabwe ex Wikipedia
QUOTE
Opposition to what was perceived as a Shona takeover immediately
erupted around
Matabeleland. In November 1980
Enos Nkala
made some inflammatory remarks directed at Mugabe's party during a rally near
Bulawayo.
This, unfortunately, was later deemed to have caused the first
Entumbane uprising, which resulted in clashes between Nkomo and Mugabe
supporters.[31]
In February 1981, there was a second uprising, which swiftly spread to Glenville and also to Connemara in the Midlands. Former Rhodesian security units were called in to stop the bloodletting, which they were able to do only after three hundred lives were lost.
The Matabele unrest led to what has become known as 'Gukurahundi' (Shona:
"the early rain which washes away the
chaff before the
spring rains"[32])
or the Matabeleland Massacres, which lasted from 1982 until 1985. Mugabe ordered
his
North Korean-trained
Fifth Brigade to occupy Matabeleland, crushing any resistance to his rule.
It has been estimated that at least 20,000 Matabele were murdered and tens of
thousands of others were tortured in military internment camps.[33]
[ broken link but see Breaking
The Silence ] The slaughter only ended after Nkomo and Mugabe reached
a unity agreement in 1988 that merged their respective parties, creating the
Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front.
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|Breaking the Silence : Building True Peace. – Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, p. 157 Breaking The Silence
