Profile: Perence Shiri

Born on 11^th January 1955, Perence Shiri quickly rose through the ranks of the Zimbabwean liberation forces to assume critical positions at the heart of the country’s post-liberation history. His first, and most devastating, role was as First Commander of the Fifth Brigade, the specially-commissioned, North Korea-trained assault force directed to carry out the Gukurahundi genocide against the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s. In December 1982, it was to Perence Shiri that then Prime Minister Mugabe handed the ‘Gukurahundi’-emblazoned Fifth Brigade flag and directed Shiri and his men for immediate deployment to “plough and reconstruct”.[1]

In 1986, Shiri accepted the British government’s invitation to study at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. The British military authorities isolated Shiri as “the man who was going to be important in Zimbabwe”, despite his recent tenure as Commander of the Fifth Brigade during the Gukurahundi genocide.[2]

In 1992, Shiri ascended to his current position as Air Marshall, commander of the Zimbabwean Air Force, despite rumours that he is unable to fly.[3]

In the same United Nations report which isolated Emmerson Mnangagwa for his role in the sale of conflict diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo 2002, Shiri was named by the UN as “involved in military procurement and organizing air support for the pro- Kinshasa armed groups fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo” and “part of the inner circle of ZDF diamond traders who have turned Harare into a significant illicit diamond-trading centre”.[4]

As a prominent member of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), the authority headed by Emmerson Mnangagwa responsible for directing military strategy across the country, Shiri is heavily implicated in the brutal campaign of repression reputedly coordinated by the JOC during the run-off elections of 2008. Reports also directly name Shiri in the coordination of specific violent attacks, such as those inflicted upon MDC activists in Chinhoyi, Kariba and Hurungwe,[5] alongside a pervasive “terror campaign” in Manicaland.[6] He was also reported to have attempted to restrict Zimbabwe’s food supply to ZANU-PF supporters as a means of starving those allied to the then-opposition MDC.[7]

In 2008, Shiri was named as “the prime mover behind the military assault” in the Marange diamond fields which killed at least 214 people in  three weeks of constant, indiscriminate attacks on those the government declared to be illegal miners.[8] Soldiers under Shiri’s command were reported to have “indiscriminately fired live ammunition and tear gas into the diamond fields and into surrounding villages”, and thereafter “searched the bodies of dead miners on the field and took all diamonds and any other valuables they found”.[9]

The army, under Shiri’s command, were stated to have “engaged fully and openly in the smuggling of diamonds”, being “offered a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to benefit directly from diamond smuggling.[10] These reports stand alongside further testimony that the very same “soldiers torture and beat scores of local miners and diamond dealers, some of whom died as a result of the injuries that they sustained”, with soldiers often denying medical care to victims of their abuses.[11]

Further reports attest to the military syndicate instituted by Shiri’s forces in Marange, with soldiers handling much of the current diamond sales, made possible by the running of forced labour camps (including forced child labour), the continued torture of miners, and the abuse and displacement of the local community.[12]

In 2008, Shiri survived a reputed assassination attempt in which he was shot in the arm whilst travelling to his farm, a property seized as a result of his role in the  spate of violent farm evictions over the last decade.[13] The shooting was alternatively and more mundanely described as an act of revenge by “the boyfriend of an air force sergeant with whom [Shiri] was allegedly having a romantic relationship”.[14]

Shiri is also alleged to have taken “Eirene Farm at the expense of 96 families who had initially taken over the farm and banished them to a cattle ranch unfit for agricultural purposes”.[15]

In 2010, Shiri was reported to have taken part in a “looting spree” of Reserve Bank assets through what legal experts claimed to be a series of illegal auctions. He was stated to have purchased “a Cam ambulance worth US$30 000 and a brand-new Mazda T35 Swaraj bus” with a resale value of “US$44 000, for US$12 300”. Also reported to have been purchased by Shiri was “a headboard for US$ 50” thought to be “valued at US$100” and “a four-piece leather lounge suite valued at US$2 500 for US$580”.[16]

Perence Shiri remains a high-profile ZANU-PF-aligned military chief who has played a substantial part in the worst atrocities of Zimbabwe’s history. For his role in the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s, he – alongside Constantine Chiwenga, Sydney Sekeremai, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and President Robert Mugabe – has commanded complete impunity for the crimes which he and his soldiers committed. With Zimbabwe’s recent history of violence and repression, the charges against him have greatly expanded. With the continued reign of the military chiefs of the JOC, Shiri’s history of violence and murder appears without obvious end.

This entry was posted by Sokwanele on Monday, December 19th, 2011 at 10:22 am. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.