AFRICA NEWS : 16 July 1997
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.
In February 1983, the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean army went to Neshango, a small village in the then rebellious southern province of Matebeleland and rounded up scores of villagers for interrogation. Among those rounded up were two young pregnant girls.
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.
The soldiers picked out the two pregnant girls from the rest of the villagers and shot them at close range to death. That did not seem to meet their standards for bestial ruthlessness and - using bayonets fixed on their AK-47 rifles, the soldiers then slit open the dead girls' stomachs exposing their moving foetuses.
This is one of the gruesome incidents captured in the report compiled by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) about massacres committed by the Fifth Brigade army unit in Matabeleland and part of the Midlands province in the early and mid-eighties. Based on the testimonies on over 1,000 people, the report says that between 5,000 and 7,000 Zimbabweans - unarmed civilians at that - were massacred those dark post-independence days between 1981 and 1988.
The report, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace, A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980-1988 was published in March this year. "The purpose of this report is to record for posterity what transpired in our post-independence era. We want the government to acknowledge that the massacres took place and also to make an apology to the relatives of the victims and find ways of assisting the affected dependents of the victims", Mike Auret, the CCJP director says.
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.
Even after signing a unity accord with ZAPU in 1987 that ended the military disturbances in the affected region, Mugabe has still refused to proffer an apology to the relatives of the victims.
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.
They add that the key Ndebele leader, Joshua Nkomo, and his Lieutenants instead opted for war. Thus from 1981 to 1983, Ndebele militants carried out a reign of terror in Matabeleland and Midlands that resulted in massacres of about 40 white farmers, destruction of government properties in the region and systematic massacres of government supporters and officials.
The national army, which after independence comprised mainly former settler security forces, were unable to stem the insurrection mainly because they enjoyed a lot of sympathy from among their former comrades-in-arms who were then integrated into the army.
Nkomo, who later became the country's Vice President and his colleagues in Matabeleland and parts of Midlands were in league with the militants even though they were at pains to distance themselves from them for political expediency. 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.
"Even though we were just a handful, we depended on the logistical and intelligence support of the villagers who were against the Shona government. There was a general belief among them that Shonas were out to exterminate Ndebeles for the 19th century invasion of what was then Munhumutapa Kingdom of the Shonas by the Ndebele King Lobengula", former dissident, Kabibetsha Mtetwa said. Mtetwa was captured in 1983 and sentenced to 15 years. He was, however, released in 1988 following the conclusion of a peace accord.
The unity accord is viewed by a majority of Ndebeles as mainly benefiting the elite from both the Shona and Ndebele tribes. The people in Matabeleland contend that unity has not benefited them in any other way other than stopping the military disturbances. They say that Matabeleland continues to be neglected by the government. They add that no meaningful socio-economic developments have come their way and that most beneficial projects have gone to the Shona provinces.
"Our former leaders have betrayed us and have been bought with ministerial posts and a lot of money. If we had known that they would desert us , we wouldn't have taken part in the war of liberation with such fervour," says Vusa Manyathela, a former freedom fighter.
Manyathela says he will remain opposed to the Mugabe government as long as the President remains unrepentant.
In secret, former ZAPU officials support the issue of compensation the victims of the government massacres in Matabeleland. They also support the return of confiscated property to the original owners and an apology from President Mugabe. The CCJP (Zimbabwe) and LRF report has been given extensive coverage in the South Africa but is yet to be made public in Zimbabwe. The Catholic Bishops Conference and CCJP have sent copies to President Mugabe and are still waiting for a response from him before making the report public.
"I have phoned President Mugabe several times but I have not been able to secure an appointment for the Bishops. We are going to wait a few more weeks and if need be we will picket State House to elicit a response from Mugabe," Mr Auret said in an interview.
Since receiving the report, Mugabe has not directly commented about it. But he has lashed out at those who dig into the past: "Let us remember that there are those who are bent on mischief-making - persons who see in our unity and the history of the struggle that unites us, a force against their own machinations. If we dig up history, we wreck the nation and we tear our people apart into factions." However, as Mugabe assumes the mantle of Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), he must look seriously into his human rights record if the organization's commitment to democracy, transparency and accountability is to be taken seriously.
Mugabe's recalcitrant manner with regard to the issue of acknowledging, much less apologising for, the massacres is in stark contrast to the South African situation where a Truth Commission has unearthed the massacres that were committed by the apartheid regime and the African National Congress.
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.