BULAWAYO – Tempers flared up at a meeting of the Organ on National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration on Thursday when victims of the Gukurahundi
massacres demanded compensation. President Robert Mugabe’s previous
administration turned a deaf ear to calls from human rights activists and
politicians from Matabeleland and the Midlands to compensate victims of the
mass killings by the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade in the 1980s.

Co-Minister of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration and Zanu PF
outgoing chairman John Nkomo who chaired the meeting came under fire from
representatives of civic society, churches and residents who took turns to
demand justice for the victims.

The leader of the Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda, Effie Ncube,
led the attacks and called for those behind the deaths of more than 20 000
civilians to be brought to justice.

“We need to bring justice to victims of the violence and take justice to the
perpetrators.

“We have to pursue accountability because those who were responsible for
violence must be answerable,” he said to applause from the audience.

“Those who killed others should be taken to jail.”

Ncube openly referred to Nkomo as a close ally of Zanu PF bigwigs who
sponsored the Gukurahundi massacres.

He told the Zanu PF chairman that he was not the right person to lead the
national healing process since his hands were “dripping blood” of his party’s
opponents who died between 2000 and 2008.

In his response Nkomo avoided the issue of Gukurahundi.

Speaking on behalf of churches, Pastor Kenneth Chirimuuta said there was
need to craft a legal framework to enable compensation for Gukurahundi
victims.

He said it was impossible to heal the nation when the Ndebele people were
still bitter about the merciless attacks by Mugabe’s regime in the
mid-1980s.

“The Gukurahundi issue must be dealt with because it will be pointless to
talk of national healing when some people are still crying.

“There must be a legal framework for national healing to cover compensation
of Gukurahundi victims,” Chirimuuta said.

He said even victims of “Operation Murambatsvina” deserved to be given
compensation, since they lost valuable property during the destruction of
their homes.

According to the United Nations more than 700 000 people were left homeless
in May 2005 after Mugabe’s regime descended on helpless residents in the
infamous slum-clearance campaign.

Chirimuuta also called for the de-politicisation of state institutions such
as ZBC and Zimpapers, accusing them of peddling Zanu PF’s agenda at the
expense of other political parties in the inclusive government.

“As churches we call for forgiveness but that doesn’t mean that we should do
away with justice.

“People who were affected by political violence in this country should be
given access to justice, then from there we can move to national healing,”
he said.

MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and Co-Minister of National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration, said he sympathised with those demanding
justice for Gukurahundi victims.

“We have to address issues related to Gukurahundi – look at ways to resolve
that politically motivated violence that affected many in and around
Bulawayo.

“It’s worrying that nothing was done to appease those who were affected by
the Gukurahundi atrocities,” he said.

Mugabe unleashed the North Korea-trained 5 Brigade who killed thousands of
Ndebele people accusing them of harbouring dissidents in what was seen as a
campaign to decimate PF Zapu.

The killings ended when the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo signed the
Unity Accord with Mugabe on December 22, 1987.

But human rights activists say those who survived the attacks by the
soldiers have not received any psychological support or medical assistance
from government since the conflict ended.

Children whose parents were raped by soldiers or were killed are also still
struggling to secure national identity documents.

The following link will provide a Comprehensive report on the atrocities committed under Gukurahundi.

Link: HERE

The Standard