Retired Bishop honoured for exposing Gukurahundi

LINK!!!
Ezekiel Chiwara 03.DEC.07

A RETIRED Roman Catholic bishop who was one of the first people to expose the massacre of 20 000 civilians in Matabeleland and the Midlands, Henry Karlen was on Friday given the prestigious Civic Honour by the Bulawayo City Council for helping victims of the government's military campaign.

He was bestowed with the honour at a function where Bulawayo mayor, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube also gave civic honours to the late Carl Paul Pretorius, a renowned soccer referee and Amratbai Desai who gave financial support to parties led by the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo during the liberation struggle.

Karlen, who was the first Archbishop of the Bulawayo diocese in 1994 alongside his successor, Bishop Pius Ncube are credited for bringing the killings to the attention of the international community.

The bishops confronted the then Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe with evidence that the Fifth Brigade, a specially trained forces of the fifth brigade deployed in the provinces to fight ‘dissidents’ were carrying out a campaign of torture, rape, starvation and murder against the civilian population.

This was after they carried out an assessment of the situation in Matabeleland North and South provinces between 1983 and 1984.

“Archbishop Karlen was a Bishop in Bulawayo at a time of the disturbances in Matabeleland in the early 80s. He went out of his way and at great personal risk to his own life to assess the situation in Matabeleland North in 1983 and in Matabeleland South in 1984 and to offer help to the beleaguered people in the two provinces,” read the citation for the honours.

Bishop Ncube was forced to resign a few months ago after a government sponsored operation allegedly caught him having an affair with a married parishioner, Rosemary Sibanda. Sibanda’s husband, Onesmus is now suing Bishop Ncube for Z$15 billion for alleged adultery.

Karlen was born in Switzerland in 1922 and taught in various Roman Catholic Church seminaries in Europe and South Africa before relocating to Zimbabwe in 1974. He retired as the Archbishop of Bulawayo in 1998 and is now involved in a number of charitable activities in the city.

Mugabe described the Gukurahundi killings as “a moment of madness” but 20 years after they ended, victims are yet to receive any compensation.

Tracing the last days of Look-out Masuku!

LINK!!!
sundayview by Judith Todd

IN mid-March, my parents invited the Shamuyariras to dinner. Halfway through, Nathan said: "Judy, I hope CIO is not still interfering with your mail?" I had to think on my feet, as it were, although I was sitting down.

What worried me was any possible fright to my mother, so I tried to pass his question off as a light-hearted matter and said: "Minister, I haven’t told my mother about this, but everything seems to have led to vastly improved relations with the CIO, and Mr Stannard and I are even due to have lunch with each other."

The minister seemed amused, and my mother and the two New Zealand visitors seemed unperturbed. I supposed, sitting warmly around the table, the possibility of the CIO opening my mail seemed unreal to everyone but the minister, my father and me. But of course, whatever I hoped, my mother would have known exactly what was happening. Her sensitivity was ultra acute.

Now and again, I thought I had reached the age and the condition when nothing was so bad that it could shock me. That particular thought was in my mind on Monday 24 March when Michelle Faul rang to say that we must meet, which we did high above Harare on the Meikles Hotel pool deck at lunch time. She worked for Associated Press and was a stringer for the BBC.

Four days earlier, Michelle had been instructed to meet Nathan Shamuyarira. She was told that "we" are tired of her reporting; she would have no further assistance from the ministry — which meant she would lose her accreditation. She couldn’t be deported, as she was a citizen by birth of Zimbabwe, so the only way to deal with her was detention at Chikurubi.

She was rightly very frightened, and at the same time ashamed of being scared. She was leaving Zimbabwe within the next 48 hours, deprived of her home, her right to work and, basically, of her citizenship.

After our painful lunch, I got back to the office to find a white woman of about 60 who asked if I could spare a few minutes. Between Michelle and now this lady, I realised that there were still things that could profoundly shock me.

She sat down, introducing herself as Margie Schwing, and although she never actually wept, she was on the verge of tears and struggling for control throughout the awful story she told me. She had been in Park Street in November, and all of a sudden was surrounded by five men who said they were from CIO and took her off to Harare Central police station. From there she was moved to Chikurubi Women’s Remand Section. She appeared once in a magistrate’s court and the CIO opposed bail because they said they were still investigating fraud.

From what Mrs Schwing said, it was CIO throughout, and not the fraud squad. She said she still didn’t know why she had been held. She was released at the end of February, suffering from pneumonia, and was taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital outpatients. Due to one of those strokes of good fortune, Mrs Schwing had been alone when a member of her church saw her and came to ask what was wrong. She was accompanied by two CIO agents, one of whom had gone to get her prescription filled, while the other had gone to the toilet.

The friend was extremely practical and whipped out a notebook, and took down the name and address of Mrs Schwing’s son, who apparently worked for Tabex in Malaysia, and then darted off before CIO reappeared.

The conditions she described were terrible: women not knowing of any rights they might have; beatings by wardresses; people having their hair torn out; a woman having teeth punched in; the use of hosepipes on prisoners by the wardresses; malnutrition among toddlers and babies picked up with their mothers. She said that on New Year’s Day as the women came out of the cell blocks, they each received a blow with a hosepipe and the accompanying greeting: "Happy New Year!"


Mrs Schwing also said something that I thought might be the truth of the matter, although she apologised for saying it, because, she said, it sounded so unreal. She had been at a party before her detention, and Simon Muzenda was there. He had been very nice to her, and introduced her to a lot of people. Mrs Schwing heard a young man, who seemed to stay close to her all the time at the party, saying to someone else: "It’s just not fair! I’m also in business. Why doesn’t Muzenda introduce me to all these people?"

So, she said, it may have all started with jealousy. To me, that didn’t sound unreal.

On Tuesday 1 March 1986, Lieutenant General Lookout Masuku and the veteran PF Zapu politician Vote Moyo were officially released from detention. As was the case under the Smith regime, the names of detainees could not be published, so there hadn’t been news of them in the papers for the four years they had been imprisoned in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. Now their freedom was headline news.

Lookout’s wife Gift managed to get permission for me to see him on Sunday 9 March from 3.30PM to 6PM at Parirenyatwa Hospital. There were four heavily armed soldiers outside his room. I sat down with them, and said I gathered they had a permit for me to see Masuku. They were perfectly pleasant and said that was fine, so I walked into the private ward.

Lookout was attached to two drips but sitting up in bed, and he gave a small scream when he saw me, jumped up and hugged me hard. The drips were suspended from a wheeled stand, so he was mobile.

There was no awkwardness. It was as if we had known each other for years and had seen each other yesterday. But the joy was precisely because we hadn’t seen each other for more than four years, and because it was so wonderful to see one another again. I couldn’t begin to fathom the hell of uncontrolled suffering he had been going through. There were some days he had no memory of, which was probably just as well. The full story would probably never unfold, but if it did, it would be bleak. For example, it turned out that the "specialist" the prison authorities had told his lawyer he had seen in December was neither a specialist nor even a registered doctor.

I wondered, too, about the doctor at Chikurubi. I had learned he was a Russian Jew on contract, that he had worked previously in Israel and that he was very timid. I wondered if he had ended up in his position because he had such good qualifications.

We talked non-stop, an interested guard listening in the corner, until after six, when the soldiers very reasonably asked me to leave, as visiting hours were over. That was sad, because we didn’t then think we would be seeing each other again in the foreseeable future.

I rang Gift the next day to thank her, and to say I’d had a wonderful time. Of course, "wonderful" was the wrong word. Lookout was skinny and his arms were very swollen from trying to find veins for the drips, and he was very, very sick. But he sat up all the time I was with him and was mentally as bright as a button. There was a heart-rending moment when he said: "But what of the future? When I went to prison I got high blood pressure. Then I got kidney troubles. Now I have this. What is going to happen to me next?

I said: "Oh Lookout!" as though, how could he ask such a question?

But he said: "No, Judy, I mean it. Let’s be practical about the whole thing."

I feared he was absolutely right. I had been consulting Professor Noel Galen, who was very gloomy about Lookout’s future.

Late on Monday night I returned a call from Gift.

"Have you heard anything?" she asked.

I said I had heard a rumour that Lookout was to be released. She said it was true. I said: "How do you know? Who told you? Is there a piece of paper?"

She laughed and said the fact that she was telling me meant that it was true.

She travelled up the next day from Bulawayo, and I spent half an hour with her and Lookout at Parirenyatwa. As he was now a free man, no permits were required to see him and the armed guards had been withdrawn.

At about six that Tuesday evening, an unknown man walked in and stood by the bed. Lookout was polite but cool. I kept thinking, what an odd doctor. He didn’t ask how Lookout was feeling — he just kept informing him that he would be seeing him again, the next night, in hospital, in Bulawayo.

When he left, they simultaneously said: "CIO." Then I remembered him.


*Excerpt from Judith Todd’s latest book, Through the Darkness; A Life in Zimbabwe, available from www.zebrapress.co.za.

MORE ON "GUKURAHUNDI" from NICK WORRALL

GUKURAHUNDI REVISITED

Memories of a massacre

stand first: The Guardian's correspondent in Zimbabwe in the early 80s, NICK WORRALL, gives his exclusive first-hand account of how he broke the news of the Gukurahundi massacre in Zimbabwe.
'Dozens of small villages had been similarly attacked and hundreds - possibly thousands - of people shot dead'
'My colleagues had betrayed our confidence and agreement'
'The suffering people of Matabeleland were failed miserably by the journalists'
'The Catholic Church knew at first hand about the killings and had been giving fleeing villagers places of refuge in their churches'
It was a quiet Saturday morning in January 1983. I was sitting reading the sparse newswires, sitting at my desk in the small office I rented in Frankel House, in the centre of what used to be called Salisbury - now Harare.  There seemed little news around on this sultry day and my mind was drifting towards swimming pool and cold wine.
So, about to leave for home, I was picking up some papers when a small, oldish man, entered my office. He looked dishevelled and out of breath. He thought mine was the BBC office. I told him it was not but, sensing a bit of news, I asked him to sit down, catch his breath and tell me his story.
He told me he had rushed over from Matabeleland where something dreadful was happening and he wanted to give details to the BBC. I told him that the BBC correspondent was, as far as I knew, out of town. But if he could give me details I would see that it was passed to the BBC when their man returned. In the meantime I asked him to tell me what was upsetting him.
The story he stammered out turned my blood cold. I asked if I could come with him to his village so he could show me enough for me to give the story to my newspaper. The BBC, I said, would certainly pick it up quickly. 
There had been quite a bit of news to report - government irritation at my claim (true as usual) that Zim, suffering from severe shortages, was getting its petrol, from South Africa. Tantamount to a shameful African crime at that time. Then there had been consistent reports from Matabeleland of attacks on farmers with official blame being aimed at "dissidents".
Some attacks, including a bomb or two in Harare and another against the air force in Gweru, were being blamed on the South Africans or perhaps on disgruntled former Rhodesian soldiers who refused to live under black rule.
Apart from these Robert Mugabe had made an unexpectedly good start after his sweeping election victory in 1980. A certain amount of opposition had come from Joshua Nkomo's Matabeleland supporters, but a strong military presence in that part of the country seemed likely to quell any potential rebellion.
Most of the Zim armed forces had received training from the British army, but a curious decision, which was bound to irritate the West, brought in soldiers from North Korea to train a new element of the local forces - to be known as the Fifth Brigade. They already had the country agog after a major showing of drill, armed and unarmed combat at the capital's major soccer stadium.
I had arrived in Zimbabwe in 1981 to report for the London Sunday Times but I changed to the Guardian when I had the chance. I was fond of this great liberal paper from my days in Britain, especially since my father had been their man to report on Ian Smith's illegal declaration of independence in defiance of colonial masters Britain. John Worrall was expelled when Smith finally lost patience with his fair, but often damning, reports. 
I decided that I should not go down to dangerous Matabeleland alone but pass the news to two other British correspondents, the Reuters bureau chief and the freelance stringer for The Times. We all agreed to go down together first thing the next morning.
My informant had come from a small village some distance northwest of Bulawayo. He took us there. All that remained was a ring of burned huts, some still smouldering. There were a few women. They were obviously in mourning. As we drove in they gathered up their children and moved away. But our friend called them back and reassured them that we meant them no harm.
They told the story that two days before a troop of Fifth Brigade soldiers had driven into the village and brandished a piece of paper. They read out the names of several men, all of them local officials of Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU political party. They ordered the villagers to produce the men. When they said the men were not in the village the soldiers grabbed six villagers, male and female. These were lined up in front of a hut and shot. Huts were then set on fire and the soldiers departed.
We were shown hollow graves in which the murdered villagers had hastily been buried. And we were told that this incident was by no means a one-off. Dozens of small villages had been similarly attacked and hundreds - possibly thousands - of people shot dead. Others, they said, especially young men, teenagers, had been savagely tortured with bayonets and left to die on the ground.
We were shown two or three more villages which had suffered a similar fate at the murderous hands of the red beret-wearing Fifth brigade. We saw more shallow graves, more burned huts and more weeping women. In each case the same story was told - they were seeking Nkomo supporters and were under orders to kill them.
We were also taken to the Mpilo hospital in Bulawayo where we were told many young men had been taken suffering from bayonet wounds. We saw about 15 victims, covered in bandages over a mass of holes in their chests and stomachs. Some were clearly in great agony, others had been drugged and were sleeping. Those that could speak told a similar story - they'd been dragged away from their huts or from their work and the soldiers had repeatedly stabbed them and then left them, lying on the ground.
When we had seen enough we retired to the Holiday Inn hotel to discuss what we had observed. It was now quite late on Sunday but there would be time to write a story and file it to London by telex that night. We were of the opinion that it was important that all three of us should tell the story now - in that case we would be protected by the coverage. No-one could accuse any one of us for having made up the story which seemed to accuse Robert Mugabe and his army of mass murder. There was safety in numbers.
The next day I discovered that the Guardian had used my story on the front page. Reuters and the London Times had printed nothing. My colleagues had betrayed our confidence and agreement. I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would to pay the same penalty as my father had 13 years before.
It was nearly three months before they expelled me. I spent time trying to get others who knew full well what was happening in Matabeleland to support me from the accusation that my story had been a lie.  I travelled to Botswana where I found hundreds of refugees from Matabeleland in a camp, all of whom told similar stories of the massacre. The Catholic Church knew at first hand about the killings and had been giving fleeing villagers places of refuge in their churches. But no-one wanted to admit to the problems.
Another well-informed organisation was Oxfam who had several programmes for the poor in Matabeleland and had observed the actions of the troops. But they did not want to jeopardise their operations either.
One result of my report (which was never acknowledged by Mugabe or any other Zimbabwean official) was to have Matabeleland closed down to the press. It took more than a year before Donald Trelford made the effort for The Observer to look for himself. Not many of our colleagues have made that effort. Perhaps in future journalists might show a bit more courage when confronted with this kind of brutality. On another occasion lives might be saved. In this, the suffering people of Matabeleland were failed miserably by the journalists.
The role of the press over this dreadful issue was far from courageous, nor has it resulted in any repentance or admission of guilt and change of heart by Mugabe, himself a Roman Catholic. I shall never forget these words about his president from an embittered Joshua Nkomo during an interview: "Mugabe has dismantled everything but mantled nothing".

 

THE INTERVIEW BY THEARCHBISHOP PIUS NCUBE!

PLEASE CLICK BELOWAND SEE AND HEAR FOR YOURSELF!

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bHb_VwTIPm4

 

---

The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.

URGENT "STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS" FROM THE OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT!

"STATE OF THE NATION" ADDRESS BY YOUR PRESIDENT!

I think there is a bit of confusion in our beloved country of Zimbabwe today!

Who ever said I won the Presidential Elections of 2002?

I never said so!

All I said was Tsvangirai's Election Petitions are "frivolous and vexatious."

I also pleaded with all patriots to "recognize" me as the Executive President.

I am the only person who can keep this country of Zimbabwe together!

If I removed myself from the top seat, the country will degenerate into chaos (racialism, tribalism, regionalism and all the negatives you can think of!)

Now we are in this whole mess because you simply refused to do the obvious- JUST RECOGNIZE ME. PERIOD!

Do you honestly think Tsvangirai can run this country?

I'm very disappointed with you, my fellow countrymen!

Running a country is a very complicated, delicate task!

You do your best and you are still accused of not doing your best!

WHO REALLY COULD HAVE MANAGED THIS ECONOMY BETTER THAN ME?

Now about the so-called rigging and the so-called-violence!

Your focus should be on the major issues!

Would we really stand by and allow Mr Blair to re-colonize our country, take away our Sovereignty and take over all our resources?

Would you allow someone to take your wife and you just stood by?

Please lets be very serious, Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades and Friends!

About assassinations:be very careful!

This may break the whole Nation apart!

Who killed Cde Hebert Chitepo?

So why do you ask who killed General Josiah Magama Tongogara?

About the so-called "Truth and Reconciliation Commission!"

Where and when do we start?

Who will remain without blood on his hands?

Do you know how Dr Parerenyatwa died? Was it Smith's men or was it an internal struggle?

So will you raise the dead to ask them to testify?

Then last but not least: where in the world are "perfect people"?

The words "rigging", "assassinations" etc are English words!

Are they Shona words?

MUTIKWANIRE! (STOP THIS LUNACY!)

Please recognize me, rally behind me as your God-given father and lets move forward and re-build our Nation!

About the unfortunate isolated incidents in the Southern part of our country (the so-called "Gukurahundi Massacres"), please lets not open old wounds!

The Ndebeles can be very naive if they think we have forgotten their vicious raids against our peace-loving Shona people in the 1890s!

Please let all bye-gones be bye-gones!

MAY THE GOOD LORD ABOVE BE WITH YOU ALL!

Yours Faithfully,

ME.

 

---

Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now.

JOURNALIST GEOFF NYAROTA REMEMBERS "THE DAILY NEWS!"

Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman

By Geoffrey Nyarota   http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=836&Itemid=44      (Excerpt from Chapter 6, "Kutama to State House")    THE TASK fell on Nhongo and Mhanda, the two top Zanla representatives in Zipa, to muster support for (Robert) Mugabe from both the guerrillas and his Mozambican host, Machel. In August 1976, said Mhanda, they spirited first (Edgar) Tekere and then Mugabe from Quilimane to the Zanla camp at Chimoio, without Machel's knowledge, to meet with the guerrillas. 'It was my task to brief Mugabe on our military operations and I found him both attentive and receptive, a good listener. However, the guerrillas and refugees who met him did not find him an easy man to deal with, and soon formed the opinion that we would not go very far with him,' said Mhanda.   'He was secretive, stubborn and uncompromising, and the more I got to know him, the more I, too, began to fear for the future of the liberation struggle. When Mugabe takes a dislike to someone, he becomes vindictive and never changes his mind,' Mhanda told the BBC in an interview in January 2000. After he returned to Quilimane, Mugabe was invited to attend a Front Line States summit in Dar es Salaam, where he was officially recognised as Zanu's new leader. From the Tanzanian capital he went to Maputo, where preparations were under way for the Geneva Conference aimed at settling the Rhodesian question. In October 1976, Mugabe led the Zanu delegation to the talks.   One of his first acts as Zanu leader was to disband Zipa, fearing that his archrival, Nkomo, might gain control of a single, united guerrilla force. This so dismayed Mhanda that he refused to travel to Geneva with the Zanu delegation. Shortly before Mugabe's departure for Switzerland Mhanda, using his alias, Dzinashe Machingura, told Zanla fighters via a Radio Maputo broadcast: 'We do not identify ourselves with any of the factions trying to lead us'.   For the duration of the talks, Mugabe brooded over what he saw as a threat to his leadership and on returning to Maputo, heartened by the fact that Machel had finally decided to support him, he persuaded the Mozambican president to act swiftly in order to forestall a military rebellion led by Mhanda.   On 19 January 1977, the Mozambican army arrested fifty of Zipa's top commanders at Beira, in Mozambique's Sofala province, while they were attending a conference to discuss the reintegration of political and military leaders arrested in Zambia in the wake of Chitepo's murder. Tongogara had been released from prison in Lusaka at Mugabe's request so that he could attend the Geneva Conference, where the two had forged an alliance. In the year that followed the Beira arrests, another 600 'dissident' guerrillas were rounded up at Tongogara's behest in the various training camps.   It was the start of what would be a ceaseless and ruthless campaign by Mugabe to neutralise anyone he perceived as a political opponent or threat to his hegemony. Among those held were Elias Hondo, James Nyikadzinashe, Bournard Manyadza (alias Parker Chipoera), Dr Stanslaus Kaka Mudambo, Chrispen Mataire (alias David Todhlana) and Dr Augustus Mudzingwa of Zipra. Also arrested were Happison Muchechetere (alias Harry Tanganeropa) who later became the editor-in-chief of New Ziana, Zimbabwe's national news agency, after a stint at ZBC, and Alexander Kanengoni, who worked for the ZBC and wrote a column for the Herald after independence. Mhanda was not among those initially arrested.   'In fact, Mugabe invited me to work with him,' he said. "We met a day after the commanders were arrested and I was informed of the so-called charges against them. I strongly disputed the claims and protested against this wilful and wanton act of victimisation.   'I refused to cooperate with Mugabe and the new central committee that he had just set up and demanded that the commanders be released, failing which I would join them. That is how I ended up in prison, too.   'The charges against the commanders were vague, to say the least. They were accused of straying from the party line – kurasa gwara remusangano, as they say in Zanu.' According to Mhanda nothing more specific was put to the detainees and no evidence was presented against them. There was no trial, not even a hearing in terms of the codes of discipline and conduct applicable to both Zanu and Zanla, and the accused were offered no chance to defend themselves.  'We were held in the basement of the abandoned Grand Hotel in Beira before being taken by road to Nampula province, where we were locked up in a military prison for a week. We were then airlifted to Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado in the far north, and confined to our cells for more than seven months,' said Mhanda. Those arrested in January 1978 were charged with plotting to overthrow the leadership of Zanu. 'They appeared before some form of kangaroo court,' said Mhanda. 'My understanding is that Mugabe was the presiding officer, assisted by Tongogara, Tekere, Herbert Ushewokunze and Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had just joined them in Mozambique after living and working in Zambia since 1970.'   After completing his studies at the University of Zambia, Mnangagwa had served his articles with a Lusaka law firm set up by Enoch Dumbutshena, who would be Zimbabwe's first black chief justice. Mnangagwa arrived in Maputo bearing impressive political credentials, despite not playing an active role in the liberation struggle during his time in Zambia. He had developed a close relationship with Mugabe in detention at Wha Wha and was married to Tongogara's sister. He went to Maputo at Tongogara's request and was appointed security chief, working out of the military supremo's office. It was the perfect launch pad for his meteoric post-independence rise to minister of state security. Prominent figures arrested during the second swoop on so-called rebels included Mudzi, Gumbo and Hamadziripi, all previously imprisoned by the Zambian authorities on suspicion of plotting Chitepo's death. Hamadziripi was a member of the original executive committee when Zanu was formed in 1963. Other detainees were Chrispen Mandizvidza, a founding central committee member, Webster Gwauya, the party's deputy secretary for external affairs, central committee members Matthew Gurira and Dr Joseph Taderera, and Augustine Chihuri, who would profess unflinching loyalty to Mugabe as police commissioner more than twenty years later.   On Chihuri's watch, the standards and performance of the Zimbabwe Republican Police reached an all-time low, with members being used to carry out witch-hunts against opposition politicians, the press and white commercial farmers. As the beleaguered country's most senior policeman, he was a prime recipient of Mugabe's legendary patronage, including agricultural estates.   Kangai and Richard Hove, who would both serve as cabinet ministers under Mugabe, were also detained. According to Mhanda, they spent several weeks in the Chimoio Dungeons, infamous for their execrable conditions, but escaped further incarceration due to their personal connections.   All the prisoners were eventually released as the result of intervention by Nyerere, chairman of the Frontline States at the time. However, Zanu refused to accept them back into its ranks and Machel, in abeyance to Mugabe, restricted their movements. 'We became free prisoners,' said Mhanda. 'After being confined to Pemba for six months, the Mozambican army's chief of staff persuaded us to relocate to an abandoned Portuguese military base at Balama, in rural Cabo Delgado. We were free to do whatever we liked, as long as we did not run away. Frankly, it was such a remote area that it would have been suicidal to try and run anyway. 'Mugabe had identified us as counter-revolutionaries and we were anxious to prove to Frelimo that this was not true, so we stayed for two years before we were eventually released.'   They were detained under extremely harsh conditions.   'For the week that we were at Nampula, we were never allowed out of our cells. The lights stayed on day and night, making it impossible to know what time it was. There were twenty-five of us crammed into a cell clearly not intended for so many people,' Mhanda recalled. Conditions at Pemba were no better.   'We were subjected to painful, cruel and inhuman torture. Our hands were tied behind our backs and we were thrown like bags of maize onto the back of trucks that were liberally strewn with broken glass. The guards derived great pleasure from beating us with anything they could lay their hands on. We were split into three groups of eight and confined to small cells of two metres by two metres.   'We were allowed out of our cells only once every ten days to empty the single bucket in which we had to relieve ourselves. We became accustomed to living with our waste. 'We had no blankets in the winter and our only clothing was a pair of trousers each. Our shirts had been confiscated so that in case we dared to try and escape, we could be easily spotted by our bare torsos. For almost eight months we were confined to our cells and during that period, we were allowed to bath only once, and then without soap. We were so infested with lice that we gave up killing them. We endured all manner of ailments like malaria, high fever and diarrhoea without any form of treatment or medication. 'As for meals, we had rice sprinkled with sand grains, or sadza and beans. Many a time we had nothing to eat for a whole day.'   Tongogara, Mugabe and Nhongo never once visited the prisoners.   ("No quiet on the western front", Chapter 7 of Against the Grain covers the political upheaval of the 1980's in Matabeleland - the Gukurahundi atrocities committed by Five Brigade. The extract tomorrow is a passage dwelling on one of the key players, former defence and former home affairs minister, Enos Mzombi Nkala.)   JOING THE FORUM AND TAKE THIS ARTICLE FOR FURTHER DISCUSSIONS

 

---

Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today.

"GUKURAHUNDI SENDS TREMORS THROUGH ZANU-PF!

Gukurahundi fears split Zanu PF

By Foster Dongozi   http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=6419&siteID=1   POLITICIANS from Matabeleland and the Midlands have broken ranks with their colleagues in Zanu PF, saying the current repression of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change should not spread to their provinces as this would revive memories of Gukurahundi. Between 1981 and 1987, the government, under Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, who doubled as Minister of Defence, unleashed the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade, which massacred more than 20 000 people — most of them PF ZAPU supporters — in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces. A senior Zanu PF official from Matabeleland yesterday told The Standard in an interview: "We have made very strong presentations that if our colleagues from the old Zanu PF want to unleash Gukurahundi Part Two, then it should be in areas outside of Matabeleland and the Midlands. "We will not have our people being subjected to another Gukurahundi and if the guys in Zanu PF want to launch another fresh assault on the people, then they should target their former supporters in their strongholds of Mashonaland, Manicaland, parts of the Midlands and Masvingo and stay out of the south- western parts of the country." The recent arrests of the opposition MDC leaders and supporters have generally been restricted to areas outside Matabeleland and appear to confirm the concern by the senior Zanu PF leaders from the western region of Zimbabwe. "We were brutalised a lot by the government in the 1980s under trumped up charges and we can not let our people go through another brutal experience of being tortured for alleged acts of banditry," said the Zanu PF official. PF ZAPU stalwarts such as former Home Affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa and current Home Affairs minister, Kembo Mohadi, were traumatised by the government and faced charges almost similar to those opposition MDC leaders are facing now. The then PF ZAPU president, the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, fled the country to Britain as government forces sought to eliminate him. Dabengwa was only released as negotiations for the 22 December 1987 Unity Accord were being concluded. However, Home Affairs Minister, Mohadi, denied there was such an arrangement. "I am not aware of that. Anybody who breaks the law will be arrested. There is no segregation." Speaker of the House of Assembly, John Nkomo said: "I have no response to what you are saying but generally that kind of feeling would be generated among the people if they were to be beaten and arrested. I am not aware if anybody has come up with that kind of position but that kind of sentiment would be understandable based on the nasty experiences of the 1980s. "But let me emphasise that I am not aware of the stance that you are talking about." Police brutally broke down a Harare Save Zimbabwe Campaign Prayer meeting last month but did not disrupt a similar rally held in Bulawayo. Zanu PF insiders said Dabengwa and Vice-President Joseph Msika made it clear they would not countenance any police brutality against the people of Matabeleland.

 

---

Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now.

JUDITH TODD REMEMBERS THE "GUKURAHUNDI ERA!"

Meeting the general

LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE!


SEE ALSO!!!




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an edited extract from the forthcoming book Through the Darkness: A Life in Zimbabwe, by Judith Garfield Todd. This extract was originally published in the Mail & Guardian

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Judith Todd
Last updated: 04/27/2007 02:36:28
THE Bulawayo Chronicle reported on Saturday February 12 1983 that Sydney Sekeremayi, Minister of State (Defence) in the Prime Minister’s Office, had said that 5 Brigade was going to operate in Matabeleland for a long time. The headline was “Five Brigade here to stay”.
Not all readers could have comprehended the report, but rumours had been mounting about the commission of terrible deeds by armed forces in different parts of the country, particularly Matabeleland -- rumours like ghastly nightmares from which you struggle, but don’t quite manage to awake.
Then Henry Karlen, the Catholic Bishop of Matabeleland, telephoned my father to inform him that the state was perpetrating atrocities. People were being terrorised, starved and butchered and their property destroyed.
Bishop Karlen said he had tried without success to make an appointment with the prime minister to tell him what was happening and to get him to stop.
The Catholics had been assembling evidence from their network of churches, schools and hospitals throughout the rural areas. The bishop asked if he could send a copy of these documents to my father and whether, as a senator appointed by Mugabe, he could seek an appointment for Karlen and others with the prime minister.
My father said he would do whatever he could. Karlen would courier the material to me and I would hold it for my father, who was due in Harare shortly.
The documents were delivered to my office on Thursday 17 February. I rang my father to report their arrival and he gave me permission to look at them, which I immediately did. Then I wished I hadn’t.
Events chronicled were far, far worse than I could ever have imagined. It seemed that state armed forces -- whether only 5 Brigade or others too -- had gone berserk in an orgy of violence against defenceless civilians.
I felt so horrified, sick and faint that I longed to go straight home to bed. But I had an appointment early that evening with a representative of an overseas agency which could benefit the Zimbabwe Project.
I couldn’t cancel.
We met at the Quill Club, a haunt of journalists and others who relished informed gossip, in the Ambassador Hotel near parliament. We had an adequate, if short, conversation and then I excused myself.
As I was leaving, someone hailed me. I turned and there was Justin Nyoka, now government’s director of information, waving at me and calling “Judy! Come and say hello!” He was with two other men, one of whom I didn’t know. When I joined them, he was introduced to me as Brigadier Agrippah Mutambara, head of the Zimbabwe National Army Staff College. The other was Lieutenant General Rex Nhongo, the army commander.
I shook hands with them, sat down and we exchanged courtesies. Justin bought me what was gladly described as a bitterly cold Castle Lager.
Bishop Karlen’s documents started burning in my handbag. I knew I would never have an opportunity like this again and steeled myself to speak to Nhongo.
I suppose Bishop Karlen had thought that perhaps Mugabe did not know what was happening. I suppose I thought that maybe Nhongo didn’t know either.
I said how wonderful it was that we were having this chance meeting, as I had information about army activities in Matabeleland that he might be unaware of.
The noise around us was increasing as more people came into the club and I could tell he was straining to hear me. I persevered and said it appeared as though forces were out of control; that atrocities were being committed and that mass graves were being filled with the corpses of helpless citizens.
Then, with terror, I fell silent. I had been noticing huge trickles of sweat pouring down Justin’s temples. He was mopping his face and saying, “Judy, keep quiet! Judy, keep quiet!” but Brigadier Mutambara intervened and said, “No, let her speak. She may know things we don’t. Let us hear what she has to say.”
Nhongo was stuttering, whether with horror or anger I couldn’t tell. I learned later that the stutter was a normal part of his speech. People passing our table kept trying to greet him, and he waved them all away.
He asked me for specific localities. I said I would find out for him. He said he was going to Matabeleland by helicopter the next day. He would send a car for me and I could go with him and show him the mass graves. I said unfortunately I couldn’t, as I had only heard about them and not seen them myself.
But, I said, thinking of Bishop Karlen, I might be able to find someone else to accompany him. Certainly I would try to compile information for him about what appeared to be happening. I gave him my telephone number and said if he really wanted someone to guide him, he should let me know as soon as possible and I would try to help. Then I said goodnight and slipped away.
Early the next morning, I telephoned Bishop Karlen and told him of my meeting with the army commander. I asked permission to copy all his documents for Nhongo.
He was quiet and obviously troubled but eventually said yes as others, including my father, of course, had, or were about to receive copies.
At about 9.30 I received a call from our reception area a floor below to say someone from the army was waiting for me in a car downstairs.
I scribbled a note to Sister Janice McLaughlin, saying something like: The Army Commander, Lt Gen Nhongo, has sent a car for me. I put it in a sealed envelope and gave it to Morris Mtsambiwa in an adjacent office, calmly saying, without explanation, that I was going somewhere and he must deliver the note if I wasn’t back before our offices closed that afternoon.
On the street I found a very smart looking Brigadier Mutambara in khaki uniform waiting for me. He opened the passenger door at the front of the olive green army car, I climbed in and we drove away -- to where or what my mind refused to consider.
I greeted him and started talking, trying to act as though everything was normal. I said I had just been on the telephone to Bishop Karlen and had told him of my meeting with Nhongo and himself the previous evening.
I said Bishop Karlen was the one who had compiled the information I had talked about and that he had given me permission to copy all the documents for the army commander. Mutambara seemed preoccupied. He was driving in the direction of Chikurubi Prison and started talking about himself and the fact that he was divorcing his wife, who had been unfaithful to him, and preparing to marry someone else. He stopped at a bottle store, went in and bought a couple of bottles of beer and orange juice and then proceeded to a house which, I think, was in the Chikurubi complex.
A servant let us in, not looking at us. The brigadier led me into a bedroom, opened a bottle of beer for each of us, unstrapped his firearm in its holster, laid it on the bedside table next to my head and proceeded. I did not resist.
Before long the subjugation was over, he dropped me back at our offices and, in the words of Eddison Zvobgo, I tried to continue on my road precisely as if nothing had ever happened.
Should you fall, rise with grace, and without/Turning to see who sees, continue on your road/Precisely as if nothing had ever happened;/ For those who did not, the ditches became graves.
I collected the unopened letter I had left with Morris and destroyed it. Then I made copies of Bishop Karlen’s documents and drafted a covering letter to accompany them to Lieutenant General Nhongo and now, also, to Brigadier Mutambara.
After the weekend I contacted Mutambara, who had given me a card with his number. We met at the reception desk of the Ambassador Hotel.
I handed over an envelope for Nhongo and one for Mutambara himself, each containing a complete set of Bishop Karlen’s horrifying documents on death and destruction, my letter to Nhongo and a copy of it for the brigadier.
Dated Monday 21 February, it read:
Lieutenant General Nhongo
Army Commander
Zimbabwe
Dear General
It was a privilege to talk to you and your friends at the Quill Club last Thursday evening, and to hear your views. My own strong feelings were based in part on evidence which I was not then authorised to pass on to you.
I now enclose a copy of a letter and reports compiled for the Prime Minister. I believe that Cdes Sekeremayi, Muzenda, Mnangagwa and perhaps others have also been given these copies. Bishop Karlen has given me permission now to give them to you. You can see for yourself the terrible suffering which they portray, if even half of these limited reports are accurate.
It seems to me that if, in the hunt for dissidents, we inflict such enormous damage on people who are Zimbabweans, and who are poor, weak, hungry and defenceless, all we will achieve is the creation of more dissidents forever.
I believe that this policy can only harm Zimbabwe. I also believe that, when Zimbabweans throughout the country learn what is happening, they will lose confidence in our government and in our national army.
When I hear of such damage to our people, I find it very difficult to sleep at night or to work during the day.
But while I am not in the position to provide these tormented peasants with food, with comfort and with safety, at least I can pass on to you what news I have of them.
I am sure that you are able to help [to] provide food and protection, and that the army can be redirected to healing and construction.
One of the things that frightens me most is to be told of the “disappearance” of so many young men from the affected areas -- people who have never been proved to be dissidents, but who probably played a brave role in the struggle for Zimbabwe -- their Zimbabwe as well as ours.
Surely the way to “deal” with dissidents is to establish first why they are dissidents, then to think of remedies? In other words, surely a political solution -- perhaps then backed up by the military -- is required, rather than an intransigent military one which, in my humble opinion, cannot be a solution but which can breed only more violence, bitterness and grief.
Thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Judith Acton
There was no further reaction from either Nhongo or Mutambara. I had unburdened myself on the very Friday I was collected to Professor Noel Galen, a retired American psychiatrist and dear friend teaching psychiatry at the University of Zimbabwe’s medical school, but to absolutely no one else.
Judith Todd is the daughter of Sir Garfield Todd, erstwhile prime minister of colonial Southern Rhodesia. She spent eight years in exile in Britain as an opponent of white minority rule in Ian Smith’s Rhodesia. She returned to Zimbabwe shortly before independence in 1980 and soon realised that, far from being the solution to Zimbabwe’s ills, Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were increasingly becoming the problem. As the country slid into economic and social decline, Todd had a front-row view from her position as director of an international aid agency. Over the first 25 years of Mugabe’s rule, she kept journals, notes and copies of letters and documents from which she has compiled an intensely personal account of life in Zimbabwe.

GUKURAHUNDI RECONCILIATION URGED!

Zimbabwe: Gukurahundi Reconciliation Urged

http://www.iwpr.net/?s=f&p=acr&l=EN&o=334959

 

New bill aims to address emotional scars of mass killings, but some say it doesn't go far enough.

By Fiso Dingaan in Lupane, Matabeleland (AR No. 109, 18-Apr-07)

Fighting hard to hold back tears, 52-year-old Ernest Ngwenya points to three mounds of soil crudely marked with stones and burnt logs at a clearing two kilometres from his homestead.

The contorted face tells of the emotional turmoil Ngwenya is battling to control. When he eventually manages to speak, his voice is full of pain and grief.

"I have waited 24 years for this day to grieve openly with my relatives and to show them where I buried our father, brother and uncle who were killed during Gukurahundi," he said.

"All along, I was afraid that if I talked about something like this, more of my relatives would be beaten or killed - just like what happened during Gukurahundi."

The government's bloody suppression of opposition in southern Zimbabwe after independence in 1980 is known as the Gukurahundi, or "the rains that sweep away the chaff".

The North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade killed an estimated 20,000 people, ostensibly for being dissidents. Many were buried in unmarked graves or thrown down disused mines. But survivors say the killings were systematic and targeted at Zapu office bearers and community leaders such as teachers, nurses and headmen.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has not publicly apologised for the massacres except to say the atrocities were "a moment of madness".

More than two decades later, life is back to normal in Matabeleland and the Midlands. But the relative calm is deceptive.

Ngwenya was able to overcome his fear thanks to help from the local legislator and members of a social justice pressure group called Ibhetshu Likazulu. Lupane member of parliament, Jabuliso Mguni, also counselled Ngwenya and his extended family, saying that it would do them good to talk about their experiences.

Ngwenya says he needed assurances that nothing would happen to him if he spoke out.

Movement for Democratic Change legislator and lawyer David Coltart believes Zimbabwe is still in a state of denial regarding Gukurahundi. Coltart was part of a team of researchers that compiled a report, called Breaking the Silence, on the atrocities over ten years ago.

"I do not think that even many sympathetic democrats who oppose the Zanu-PF regime have a clear idea of the scale of this crime against humanity - nor the extent of the psychological damage done to the affected communities," he said.

Indeed, most survivors are still seething with anger and grief. Elda Mlalazi is a mother of two and gets highly emotional when she recounts what she endured during Gukurahundi. She shows this reporter knife wounds that she says were inflicted by a neighbour on instructions from the soldiers.

"The scars are a constant reminder, especially when my in-laws, who don't know how I got them, start saying I was a prostitute before I got married. They laugh and say the scars were punishment from jilted boyfriends. There is nothing I can say to them but I know the truth," she said.

Ibhetshu Likazulu chairperson, Qhubekani Dube, says his organisation is trying – albeit on a very small scale – "to bring peace and closure among people who are still grieving and hurting inside. We realise that if people don't bring the issue out into the open, tribal enmity will continue," argued Dube.

The pressure group, formed in 2005, helps families identify where their relatives are buried and helps to organise burial rituals. During the ceremonies, villagers are encouraged to share their experiences and concerns over the massacres. Listening to some of the mainly Ndebele villagers recounting their experiences during a grave identification ceremony for Ngwenya's father, Mfungelwa, his brother, Aleck, and an uncle, Kaise Moyo, one is struck by the frequent reference to how "Shona-speaking soldiers" committed the atrocities.

Dube says the organisation fears that if such thoughts are left unaddressed, tribal hatred between Ndebeles and Shona will be perpetuated. He says that Ibhetshu Likazulu is trying to explain to survivors and families of victims that they should direct their anger at Mugabe "because it was him who issued the order to kill".

Mguni believes there is a desperate need to assuage the pain and grief of Gukurahundi. He worries that life has been at what he calls a "cultural standstill" for affected families. This, he explains, is because families have not buried their relatives according to custom and consequently they cannot communicate with their deceased as tradition demands.

"We have ways of burying our own. We have not done that. People were not given a chance to grieve. We are hurting inside. We have wounds festering within that need to be treated and healed by openly talking about how and why our relatives were killed. Keeping quiet will not do us any good," he said.

Additionally, Mguni says people's experiences of Gukurahundi must be recorded for posterity.

Another Matabeleland North legislator, Professor Jonathan Moyo, has drafted the Gukurahundi National Memorial Bill. Moyo is an independent member of parliament for Tsholotsho. His constituency was the first area where the Fifth Brigade was deployed in January 1983.

He says he will soon publish and distribute the proposed legislation for public input before tabling it in parliament.

Moyo, a former minister of information and publicity in Mugabe's cabinet, reckons the bill would garner enough support to allow it to be enacted because its objective of "putting in place a mechanism to deal with unresolved issues, healing the open wounds and invisible scars by seeking truth and justice", is noble.

Coltart, however, says legislation alone will not suffice. He accepts the proposed bill "may be a useful vehicle to ascertain the views and needs of victims" but adds, "The bill itself will not heal wounds – the wounds of this atrocity will require a deep-rooted commitment by government and the entire nation to understand what happened, to apologise for what happened, and to take far-reaching steps to reconcile..the ongoing suffering caused."

The legislator's views resonate with those of survivors such as Ngwenya and his cousin Mlalazi. Ngwenya says now that he has dealt with the emotional side of Gukurahundi, he can start facing up to the realities of getting national identity papers for his nephews and nieces. And, one day, he hopes that the government will compensate him and his neighbours for property destroyed during the massacres.

Even then Gukurahundi will remain a part of his life. "I won't forget. I cannot forget. How do you forget something like that? But at least now I can be at peace with myself, I know where my father is buried," he said.

Fiso Dingaan is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe.

Also in this Issue

Rumblings of Discontent in Zimbabwean Ruling Party

Zimbabwe: Independence Day Gloom

 

---

Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today.

ZIMBABWE IN PICTURES!

 

In pictures: Jeffrey Barbee in Zimbabwe (11 pictures)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gallery/2007/apr/10/1?picture=329773221

 

 

'People are dying so fast, we had to hire more grave diggers. Before we had maybe two graves a day to dig, now it is about eight to ten,' explains the graveyard foreman.

At West Park cemetery every inch of land is used to accommodate the rising numbers of bodies.

A crowd of people waiting to buy sugar, currently in short supply even for those with the money to pay for it.

 

Plenty of goods but no buyers: ruinous inflation means people can barely afford even basic provisions.

 

Two women sell ground nuts on a street in Bulawayo. The police regularly clear the street of traders; usually they return within the hour.

A black market currency trader counts out notes in the back of a car. The official exchange rate is 250 Zimbabwean dollars to the US dollar. The unofficial rate is Zim$25,000 to US$1.

A quiet street in Bulawayo. Traffic is scarce now as people have no money for petrol or even bus fares.

 

At the municipal rubbish dump outside Bulawayo, hundreds of people survive by scavenging the rubbish of Zimbabwe's second largest city.

 

A family sits in front of their hut surrounded by their failed maize crop. Poor harvests have left many people reliant on sporadic food aid.

 

Huts in a settlement near Bulawayo. Police have torn down the buildings three times, removing the roofs in an attempt to force people to move on.

James Ndani (not his real name) lives in the settlement with his mother, who suffers from epilepsy and has been driven from her home. Their drinking water comes from the mine shaft pictured here. The sign reads: "Danger - Cyanide Mining"

 

 

 

 

---

Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today.

COMMENT ON "MUGABE IS A SAVAGE!"

I wonder whether if Nkala's son was not a political somebody, Nkala would
have come out of his political retirement.

Anyone who takes him(Nkala) seriously either has a short memory or was not
born when Nkala was threatening to unleash his "army" on innocent genuine
people after he was implicated in the Willowvale scandal.

Nkala should keep his "high moral" mutterings to himself because I certainly
aint listening.

Hope his comments are treated with the contempt they deserve.

ANONYMOUS!

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.0.0/754 - Release Date: 4/9/2007
10:59 PM

THE FULL LETTER FROM DR J M N NKOMO TO ROBERT MUGABE( 1983)!

Nkomo's full letter to Mugabe

 

 

The full text Vic-President at the time Joshua Nkomo wrote to Prime Minister Robert Mugabe in 1983.

 

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/21-october-2005/full-nkomo-letter.html

 

DR. JOSHUA M. NKOMO
2 Stevenage Road
East Ham E6 2WL
London E6 2WL
United Kingdom
7th June, 1983

INFORMATIVE LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER MUGABE

Dear Robert,

1. I write to you as a citizen of Zimbabwe and one of the leaders of our country, to you not just as one of the leaders of Zimbabwe, but above all, as Prime Minister of the Government of Zimbabwe as provided for by the Constitution, that you and me, as well as other leaders signed in December 1979.

2. I write because I feel that our country is in danger of complete disintegration, to the detriment of all its citizens now living and of generations to come.

3. Not least, I write to you because I am convinced that you believe I am the main contributory factor to this dangerous situation.

4. You have stated publicly on several occasions that I have plotted, and continue to plot, to overthrow you and your government, that I have conspired, and continue to conspire, with South Africa to do that, that I have organized and continue to organize dissident groups for the purpose of destabilizing the country and finally to overthrow you.

5. You now say I have run to Britain, ostensibly because I thought my life was or is in danger, but that I have done so for the purpose of recruiting mercenaries and/or assassins to wrest power from you.

6. I also know that you and your party believe that because ZAPU lost in the last election we feel wounded, and therefore plan to wrest power from you by means, fair or foul.

7. You say we did all I have stated above despite the fact that we agreed to take part in your Government when you as Prime Minister, invited us to.

8. This whole series of accusations against me and ZAPU, which are false and without any foundation whatsoever started on the 6th February, 1982 when caches of arms were discovered at Escort Farm, and later at Hampton Farm, both of which were owned by Nitram, a private company, I assisted former ZIPRA combatants to form for occupation and use by those of them who were not incorporated into the (ZNA) Zimbabwe National Army and the (ZRP) Zimbabwe Republic Police.

9. The discovery of arms on the 6th February was followed by a number of categoric and definitive statements, by yourself, to the effect that arms were discovered in Nkomo and
ZAPU owned properties and that the cache of arms were part of a plot to overthrow you and your government; and that all those properties were being used for subversive purposes.

You said in Marondera on the 14th February, 1982: "ZAPU had bought more than 25 farms and more than 30 business enterprises throughout the country. We have now established they were not genuine business enterprises, but places of hiding military weapons to start another war at an appropriate time". You added, "Dr. Nkomo was trying to overthrow my government". "ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, were like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head".

10. You will remember that you met me and three of my colleagues at your official residence on the 5th February to discuss a number of issues, and at the end of that meeting I mentioned to you that I had received a telephone message from Bulaway to the effect that two Nitram Farms, Ascot and Woody Glen Farm had been invaded by the police the previous night and you said, you had also got information and you would inform me later what it was all about.

11. That evening I travelled with two of your Ministers on a plane to Bulawayo, Emmerson Munangagwa and Sydney Sekeramai. Little did I know that you had sent these two men to Bulawayo to display to the press arms allegedly unearthed in one of those farms, namely Ascot Farm.

12. I would have expected that as Minister under you, you would, after finding arms in Nitram owned properties, to have summoned me to your office to find out from me as to whether I knew anything about the arms.

13. I would have expected further, that you would have instructed me to have joined Munangagwa and Sekeramai in an attempt to uncover information about those arms. I am sure, you realize how important it was for me to have physically seen the location, the quantity and nature of the arms that was discovered, especially at a time when I was still Minister. While I do not dispute that arms were found on these farms, how else would I have been expected to believe the quantity, and nature of the arms unearthed and displayed to the press were authentic.

14. As it is now, I cannot be made to believe that the quantities, quality and nature of arms presented to the press were in fact all unearthed just in those two farms. It is quite clear for the discovery to make an impact on the people of Zimbabwe and the world in general, it was necessary for those who assisted you, to ferry arms from elsewhere so as to make this accusation of a plot to overthrow the government to appear real. To quote a statement made at a press briefing at Brady Barracks on the 8th February 1982: "Arms and ammunitions so far recovered in the joint police and army search operation in
Matebeleland are sufficient to equip a force of 5,000 men". Note, in 'Matebeleland' and not in Ascot and Hampton Farms. However, this is neither here nor there.

15. By Monday the 15th February 1982, the two properties owned by Nitram, the only properties on which arms were found, together with properties owned by ZAPU and those owned by companies whose members were ZAPU, including properties owned by me and my family, were confiscated under the notorious Unlawful Organisations Act, which was enacted by settler regimes to suppress liberation organizations.

16. I would like to emphasise that no other property, even those others owned by Nitram, which were all confiscated, had any arms found on them.

17. Having reminded you that arms were discovered in only two Nitram owned farms, Ascot Farm near Bulawayo and Hampton Farm near Gweru, let me further remind you that in the course of your marathon speeches round the country, telling the story of having found caches of arms meant to perpetrate a plot to overthrow you and your government, you said among other things, "If all arms cached by ZIPRA were found in or near Assembly Camps only, my government and I would not have minded". "But that", you continued, "a large quantity of arms was found in ZAPU owned properties, it is clear they were intended for use against my government". You said this because you knew that ZANLA had cached a lot of arms in and near their former Assembly Camps, and there was the question of a trainload of arms that had disappeared between the [Mozambiquean] border and Mutare.

18. It appears to me you have conveniently forgotten that Ntumbane in Bulawayo, was in fact an Assembly Point for both ZIPRA and ZANLA, that after the first Ntumbane disturbances every type of weapon not allowed there, was found in that assembly point.

The same happened after the second disturbances there; heavy weapons were found in both ZIPRA and ZANLA camps in Ntumbane. Why then did you find it surprising to have found arms at Ascot farm which is hardly seven miles from Ntumbane assembly point?

19. The same applies to Hampton Farm which is not far from Connemara Barracks where there were disturbances at the same time as there were disturbances in Ntumbane the second time. As a matter of fact, Comrade Munangagwa on 26th February, said, "Four caches of arms including 600 G3 rifles stolen during the mutiny in Connemara more than a year ago were discovered on a farm near Gweru".

20. Over and above what I have stated regarding arms caches I quote a statement by (PF) ZAPU Central Committee held in Bulawayo on the 15 February, 1982, "The Central Committee is dismayed at the deliberate attempt to build a case on an issue whose background the Prime Minister very well knows emanates from a war situation. The Central Committee denies the allegation that ZAPU had any prior knowledge of the arms caches anywhere. The administration of the army and all military issues, including former combatants' assembly camps, were placed under the responsibility of the Joint Military Command, thus removing ZAPU and ZANU of responsibility over military affairs. We wish to categorically deny the allegation of a plot to overthrow the government. On the contrary, PF ZAPU did everything, and still does for the consolidation and success of our independence" (Herald).

21. On Thursday, February 17, you announced at a press conference that I and three of my colleagues, J.M. Chinamano, J.W. Msika and J.G. Ntuta were dismissed from your government. You made your announcement at a press conference and we learnt of our dismissal from your government by press, television and radio. I was completely flabbergasted and astounded by your accusations, your actions and the manner in which they were made. What stunned and bemused me even more is that I was convinced that you knew in your heart of hearts that all accusations were false.

22. I was also convinced that you could not have been unaware of the repercussions of your statements and actions on former ZANLA and ZIPRA combatants in the National Army and in the police, and the feelings of divisiveness and hostility they would arose.

23. You must know that it was soon after your initial statements and actions that there was talk of polarization of ZANLA and ZIPRA former combatants within the National Army. Mutual suspicion and mistrust was maximized, and clashes between the two groups became commonplace.

24. Meanwhile, former ZIPRA Commanders were summoned by the Army Command, at your instruction, for questioning and investigation. This was done, it is said, by the military police and/or the C.I.O. Later, ordinary former ZIPRA men, irrespective of rank were also taken for investigation.

25. Information has it that during these investigations there was a lot of beatings and torture of all types, that a number of these young people were killed and others maimed.

26. These actions were followed by desertions and defections from the National Army not only by former ZIPRA combatants, but also by former ZANLA.

27. It was then that we learnt from your public speeches, and those of your Ministers, that a number of armed robbers and bandits in the country was growing, especially in the Western Province of Matebeleland.

28. Later your public statements and those of your Ministers began to stress that these armed bandits were infact politically inspired dissidents.

29. Information has it also, that some 300 or so ZIPRA combatants and a few ZANLA who were arrested after the troubles in a battalion camp near Karoi were detained secretly somewhere near Harare and are taken in small batches to be court martialed and executed, with no right of appeal and without informing their next of kin. It is further known that the last of these executions that has come to light took place on February 14, 1983.

30. It was when in your Parliamentary Speech you openly and blatantly accused me personally and ZAPU as a party of organising, maintaining and directing such armed dissident activities that I met you, and after thorough discussion, that I thought you accepted our position that we were not in any manner connected with these elements.

31. I found it necessary to meet you because despite the fact that I had continuously and persistently denounced and condemned the activities of these dissidents and had demanded that you appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee, without success, to investigate who these dissidents are and who succours them, instead you found it necessary to accuse us in parliament the way you did.

32. During December, overtures on unity between ZAPU and ZANU were ma de to me by your emissaries in the persons of President Canaan Banana and Minister Enos Nkala. After two meetings with them I thought we had made progress and suggested to them that the next meeting should be with yourself.

33. A meeting between us was accordingly held at State House, Bulawayo early in January 1983. The meeting did not go as well as I had expected because it appeared to me that you were averse to what I discussed with President Banana and Enos Nkala. However, despite that, we agreed between ourselves to form a Committee of 6, comprising three ZANU and three ZAPU representatives.

34. Although nothing much was achieved at the meeting between us, I believed nonetheless that moves towards an understanding between ZAPU and ZANU were making progress.

35. Yet on Tuesday, the 25th of January [1983], I received information from people who were fleeing from Mbembesi that mass beatings and killings were being perpetrated by young men in camouflage uniforms who were calling themselves the 'Fifth Brigade'.

36. By the 26th January, the numbers had grown and the information given us was that more people were being brutally beaten and killed by these young men.

37. On the 27th of January, I decided to take 12 of the people, who had themselves experienced violence at the hands of members of the Fifth Brigade, to Harare so that they may themselves explain to government what in fact was talking place.

38. When I arrived in Harare, I presented the matter to Comrade Muzenda who, in the absence of the Prime Minister, was acting Prime Minister. After I informed him of the situation in Mbembesi, which by that time had spread to Bubi and Tsholotsho, the acting Prime Minister delegated his Minister of Home Affairs, Ushewonkunze, who had expressed ignorance of these happenings, to go and meet the afflicted people in Highfields.

39. When Ushewonkunze failed to turn up until Friday afternoon, I decided to call a press conference and informed the conference of the mass killings by the Fifth Brigade; by that time the numbers reported killed by the Fifth brigade had risen to 95.

40. The following week a government spokesman made much play of the fact that Josiah Gumede; who I had told the conference that I understood by reports from Mbembesi, was among those who were killed; but because he had survived his ordeal, the spokesman completely ignored the fact that many more other people were killed, a fact Gumede himself had made known to you and president Banana.

41. During the first week of February a censure motion was presented to parliament by the chief whip of ZANU-PF against ZAPU and its leadership because of exposure of the carnage by the Fifth Brigade. Almost every ZANU member who spoke abused and scorned ZAPU, and more particularly myself, for having exposed the killings, which now had spread to Nkayi and Lupane. It was quite evident that ZANU-PF had full knowledge of what was happening but was not prepared to intervene or call a halt to those most barbarous actions which the Fifth Brigade, in the name of security, perpetrated against fellow citizens of Zimbabwe in the so-called 'curfew' areas.

42. On Saturday February the 19th, I was prevented from travelling to Prague to attend an executive meeting of the World Peace Council (which your press called Soviet sponsored) and which was to take place on the 21st and 22nd of that month. My ticket and passport and those of my three colleagues who were travelling with me were seized by the police when we were arrested. When I was released seven hours later, my three colleagues remained in custody and were later issued with detention orders which remain in force to this day.

43. On the 19th February, I was taken to the Bulawayo Charge Office where the police demanded that I make two 'Warned and Cautioned' statements to the effect that they were investigating the possibility that I had committed certain crimes: under the Law and Order Maintenance Act, because they had found on me, two sets of notes containing:

(a) a statement I made in Parliament in connection with the serious situation in Matebeleland Province created by killings and other atrocities, and

(b) notes prepared for a meeting I was to have had held with you about the same situation but did not come off.

2. That they were investigating a possible contravention of the Currency Exchange Control Act because they found on me $300 Zimbabwe dollars; meant for my wife, but in the packing rush was forgotten in my brief case. Later that day, I was called back to the Charge Office and told that they (the police) had received a telegram from the Harare police to the effect that I should make another 'Warned and Cautioned' statement in reply to a possible charge that the police in Harare were investigating a possible contravention of the Precious Minerals Act in that the police had found emeralds in my Highfields residence when they were searching for arms in that house on the 5th October 1982.

44. About three weeks earlier, I had been made to make a 'Warned and cautioned' statement by the Harare police to the effec t that they were investigating a possible breach of the Law and Order Maintenance Act when I addressed a press conference in Harare, in which I had revealed the killings of people in Mbembesi, Bubi and Tsholotsho.

45. I made those 'Warned and Cautioned' statements denying those possible charges. It was clear to me, as it could be, to any responsible person that these were trumped up possible charges designed by your government to harass and embarrass me.

46. Is it reasonable for anybody to believe that possession of a copy of a speech made in parliament and unpublished notes to be used in a meeting with the Prime minister could be a breach of the Law and Order Maintenance Act? Is it reasonable for anyone to believe that I would export from the country $300 Zimbabwe dollars. To what purpose? Is it reasonable to believe that the so-called possession of emeralds in early October, 1982 could still be for investigation by the police in mid-February, 1983? What investigation after four months of physical so-called 'possession of emeralds'.

47. On Sunday the 27th February, 1983, I received a letter from the police informing me that before leaving my house for any place, I should report to the Police Station. I refused doing this because I had no charge preferred against me, and could not understand why the police should have been so interested in my movements.

48. About the 1st or the 2nd of March, 1983, security forces, including the Fifth Brigade, were deployed in Bulawayo western suburbs and on the 5th March, 1983: my house was raided by the Fifth Brigade. Three people were killed and property, including three cars, was vandalized by the raiders. It was after this act that I realized why the police were interested in my movements.

49. I then decided to leave the country for the time being as it was clear to me that my life was threatened.

50. During the weeks that followed the deployment of the Fifth Brigade in the Western Province of Matebeleland, right up to the day I departed from Zimbabwe, hundreds of brutally assaulted people from the so-called 'curfew' areas of Mbembesi, Nyathi, Nkayi, Lupane and Tsholotsho had come to my home and related horrible accounts of brutal beatings, mass rapings, mass killings, maiming of hundreds of innocent unarmed, unresisting men, women and children as well as looting and burning of villages and houses.

51. Before leaving my house and finally Bulawayo on the 8th March, 1983, reports had come to me of untold brutalities and inhuman and degrading treatment of people within Bulawayo itself and of people being marched in their hundreds to the adjacent bush areas on the outskirts of Bulawayo, to be shot and their bodies left rotting and some taken away to unknown destinations and never to return.

52. Now that I have attempted to give an account of some of your publicly expressed opinions and beliefs about me and ZAPU, and have also tried to summarise the more important events that took place as well as actions or non-actions during the course of the three years since our independence, and have some bearing on your attempt to impose a one-ZANU Party State on the people of Zimbabwe, I give hereunder my reactions.

53. In retrospect, I now believe that I and ZAPU were deceived and cheated by you and your party when you talked of unity, reconciliation, peace and security. I now honestly and sincerely believe that when you invited us to take part in your government you believed that we would reject your offer and set ourselves up in strong opposition to you and thereby label us disgruntled rejected plotters.

54. I can now see that your insistence on establishing assembly camps in Bulawayo and Harare, and of your Ministers Nkala and others coming to Bulawayo to make inflammatory statements which sparked off the first Ntumbane incident, was all part of a plan and strategy to destabilize the country, especially the Western Province of Matebeleland, so that you could use incidents there as an excuse for using military action to crush me and my party.

55. It is now obvious to me that when you demoted me from the Ministry of Home Affairs which you knew was negotiated for a purpose at the time you invited us to take part in your government; that while you knew that we felt it was necessary for us to take part in one of the security ministries (Defence or Home Affairs) so that the former ZIPRA men drafted into the ZNA and ZRP may feel confident, thereby solidify both the army and the police, you deliberately took that action. It is clear you wanted us to pull out of your government at that time so as to destabilize the army and the police, create dissidents out of the deserting ZIPRA men and then call us plotters against your government.

56. It is clear you thought you had struck a political bonanza by the arms caches fiasco and you handled it the way you did, to achieve the following: To make the country believe that I and ZAPU wanted to overthrow your government.

That the world at large should view us as a group of people who had lost the elections and now wanted to wrest power from you and your government. To polarize the population into bad guys and good guys and so destabilize the country. To polarize the former ZIPRA and ZANLA combatants both inside and outside the army and police, so as to create a former ZIPRA grouping to be labelled dissidents. To create within ZAPU a group that would believe there was a group within the party, that in fact, was plotting to overthrow the government.

As a pretext, to use discredited and archaic settler imperialist legislation, the Unlawful Organisations Act, to confiscate ZAPU supporters's property.

57. When you announced the confiscation of ZAPU and Nitram properties, property belonging to Companies of individual ZAPU members and to me and my family, you said it was because all these properties were acquired for hiding arms. Now that it is known no arms were found on any property other than the two farms belonging to Nitram, Ascot and Hampton Farms, how do you justify the blatant and arbitrary forced acquisition of all these properties?

58. Even the confiscation of the two farms on which arms were discovered is questionable. Nitram as a Co-operative company, whose membership was more than 4,000 former ZIPRA combatants, who had contributed towards the purchase of these farms, and therefore, could not be held responsible for action or actions of a few people, who have not been identified even at the High Court trial that ended in the acquittal of six of the seven people accused of treason and caching arms.

59. With regards properties owned by ZAPU formed companies as well as those formed by us individuals, I can only say your action against them was even much more obscure. I do hope Mr. Prime Minister, you realize the harm inflicted by your ill-considered action on these properties including those owned by Nitram. Thousands of people were thrown out of resident-employment; this includes former combatants as well as former employees of those farms, who had become members of co-operatives established there. The Herald of 17th February, 1982 says, about projects at Mguza, "The co-operative venture and Secretarial training centers for women ex-combatants have been hailed by several people, including the Minister of Finance, Enos Nkala, as a model of its kind".

60. All this is gone; with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of movable property of all types including over-head irrigation equipment worth $700,000 [Zimbabwe dollars] is ruined and some of it missing. Other movable property which was looted from Mguza Complex is what Dr. Sekeramai referred to as, "The other equipment, such as a very modern operating theatre lamp with its own generator, and a sophiscated dental unit, in excellent condition and not used at all was found". This equipment meant for the College and co-operative farm inmates and people who attended a co-operative clinic there.

61. Among the most important properties of ZAPU that were taken away by the army and the C.I.O. from the Nitram farms, i.e. Nest Egg, were ZAPU Archives which were stored there for safe-keeping. They contained all ZAPU records covering the whole period of our struggle outside and inside the country, including the list of all ZAPU and ZIPRA war casualties. As a result of this, no names of ZIPRA dead were available for inclusion at the Heroes' Acre Roll of Honor list on the 10th and 11th August, 1982. This, you will agree is a very serious matter.

62. What disturbs me most, is that when you banned the companies that ran various properties and projects you said, "ZAPU had bought more than 25 farms and more than 30 business enterprises throughout the country. We had now established they were not genuine business enterprises, but places to hide military weapons to start another war at an appropriate time", (Sunday mail, 7th February, 1982). This was a deliberate distortion.

63. At the time you made the above statement ZAPU had only 2 farms, one near Harare and the other near Gweru; and had only 5 business enterprises, 2 in Harare, 2 in Gweru and 1 in Masvingo. If by ZAPU you meant farms and businesses run by companies such as Nitram and those owned by individual members of ZAPU: the position is as follows: Nitram had only 4 farms and 4 business enterprises. Companies owned by individual members of ZAPU had 3 farms near Harare, 2 near Bulawayo and two business enterprises in Bulawayo and 1 in Mbalabala. All these ventures Mr. Prime Minister, cannot be said to be, "throughout the country", nor, "more than 25 farms and more than 30 business enterprises" as you said in your statement.

64. You deliberately gave the impression to the country that, projects on those properties were run clandestinely; and yet you knew, I had, without success, several times invited you, to visit Nijo Products, 1.2 million dollar ZAPU Composite Agricultural Project, just outside Harare. I said your visit to that particular project was important and necessary because I felt it could be used as a model for resettlement purposes.

65. You were aware further that the Mguza Secretarial Training College was officially opened by Minister Shaba and that that College and the Mguza Co-operative Farming Project were visited by President Banana and Enos Nkala a few weeks before your banning order was issued. I am certain, you must have been aware that the Lido Motel in Queens Park, Bulawayo was being used as a hostel for over 300 former ZIPRA war disabled, as government had failed to house them anywhere.

66. You will remember when I met you in your office in August, 1982, you made known to me that the involvement of my family property Walmer Ranch, where we built our Makwe home, would be revealed in evidence during the Masuku, Dabengwa trial at the High Court. The trial has come and gone, Masuku and Dabengwa acquitted. However, I was told by a defence lawyer of a bizarre story about some military training supposed to have been conducted at Makwe Farm which was presented by the prosecution and was later unconditionally withdrawn by them without argument. You will know that our home at Makwe has been surrounded by the army and police ever since you made your announcement of the 16th February, 1982. All meaningful activity came to a complete halt and incalculable damage was done to all we were trying to do there.

67. I am certain you should recall what I told you when we met in your office in August, that what I had at Makwe outside the working of the farm was a big gathering where I met members of the Gwanda Community Co-operative, to discuss a grand settlement scheme in which the Makwe Irrigation Scheme and our Makwe farm would be the core of the project.

White farmers had been approached to either donate or sell at very reduced prices their farms within the area, and the response was promising. This scheme had been forwarded to the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement by the Gwanda Co-op through the local district council machinery. It was hoped that the Scheme would be presented to Government through appropriate channels for funding through ZIMCORD.

68. You must have known through your respective Government departments, local authorities and your various devices of information collection, that Kennellworth-Carisbrook Farm near Harare, Lingfield near Gweru and Mbalabala Village near Esigodini were all being processed to be handled in the same way as above, and as the Mguza complex had shown, be it in a small way, that it was feasible to implement such schemes, it was believed that the Makwe Project would succeed.

69. All these schemes were in the spirit of what I had discussed with you in December, 1981. I had made it plain to you Prime Minister, when I met you in your official residence; that your Resettlement policy was a national disaster, and you agreed with me. These schemes were meant to present practical approach models, to both rural and peri-urban resettlement, that would embrace everybody and not just a few who are said to 'qualify'.

70. But, with full knowledge of all this, you chose to tell a crowd of more than 18,000 people at the Rudaka Stadium in Marondera on the 13th February, 1982, that, "We desire a new richer life for all … and we wish to see changes in people's way of living standards and economic status. But in the midst of all our endeavours our colleagues in Government, were stockpiling and building enough weapons of war to arm 20,000 men".

71. What baffles me even more, is that, you said all the above when you knew that less than 2 months prior to your Marondera meeting, I had offered myself to take over your Ministry of Lands and Resettleme nt in an effort to assist you and through you, the country to make a success of its most vital development programme. You turned down my offer, saying I was too old to handle that Ministry, however, you said you would invite me to be one of the members of a resettlement Ministerial Committee you were about to institute. To you all this meant plotting.

72. You also had knowledge that on December 29, 1982; while I was on holiday, was requested by Brigadier Chinenge to assist him to demobilize more than 5,000 former ZIPRA combatants at Gwaai River Mine Assembly Point and willingly drove over 150 miles to help. How could I have done all these things if I was bent on overthrowing you?

Who do you think I would have called on to use all those arms after assisting to integrate some ZIPRA combatants in the ZNA and ZRP and assisted in dispersing others to their respective homes.

73. It is now very clear to me that you were very unhappy with the extent of my cooperation and that of ZAPU because you did not want peace and tranquility. You did not want stability, progress and development, because such conditions would not give you the turmoil and instability you required for your political-military action to liquidate those you chose to, and thereby impose your one-ZANU Party State.

74. It is obvious to me why you decided to form the Fifth Brigade outside the structure and command of the National Army, so that you may use it as a party and Tribal Brigade for eliminating and liquidating, as you have many times said, those you chose to destroy. As a matter of fact, when I questioned the formation of the Fifth Brigade outside the Zimbabwe National Army without consultation, you angrily replied and said, "Who are you to be consulted? This Brigade", you said, "has been formed to crush those who try to subvert my government, and if you attempt that, they will crush you too".

75. You took action against what you called ZAPU sponsored dissidents. But because you wanted to maintain this show of subversion, you have not, for almost one year and 4 months, arrested and put on trial a single dissident. Yet you have continuously, for all this period, persistently accused the ZAPU structure and those who support that structure for organising, maintaining, feeding and directing the dissidents so as to justify an armed attack on the masses.

76. It is known through information given by the masses in the affected curfew areas, that in fact the people who go about killing, maiming, raping and burning government property are in fact organized provocateurs planted by ZANU-PF in the form of undercover pseudodissidents.

… It is further known that government property destroyed by dissidents was property used by district councils who were made up of 100 ZAPU members, who were known to have worked hard to use this equipment for developing their areas vigorously and with great enthusiasm.

77. It is known that about 90% of the victims killed by dissidents were either top ZAPU officials, ZAPU businessmen and teachers, ZAPU local government officials and generally ZAPU supporters. The remaining 10% appear to be white people. Not a single ZANU supporter was killed during this period. Does not this fact speak for itself? One does not know what the position is or would be after the Fifth Brigade's bloody escapade in the Western Province of Matebeleland.

78. It can be said without hesitation that to have used the police as if they were ZIPRA officers in the Dr. Bertrand case was an abominable and fascist like attempt to portray to the country and the world at large that former ZIPRA combatants had plotting tendencies so as to blemish the name of ZIPRA.

79. I believe that the notes that were purported to have been sent by former 'ZIPRA dissidents' to the police, when foreign tourists were abducted near Bulawayo in July 1982, were in fact an effort to show ZAPU and former ZIPRA combatants in bad light. Having said that, I would like to make it clearly understood that former ZIPRA combatants are not the responsibility of ZAPU but of the Zimbabwe government, like anybody else. Despite this I found it necessary to activate and involve the masses in the areas where it was thought kidnappers may be hiding with the tourists, but before I concluded the exercise government declared a curfew in those areas, making them nogo places, causing an abrupt end to that effort. Why that was done I do not know to this day.

80. I now understand why you have maintained legislation such as the Law and Order Maintenance Act, the Unlawful Organisation Act and the Emergency Powers Act; which was enacted by former regimes specifically for the suppression and oppression of the black population of Zimbabwe, and for use against their effort to struggle for independence, social justice, enjoyment of freedom and human rights. You now seem to enjoy and justify the use of these notorious laws to deny your own people that which they fought and died to achieve.

What is it that makes you believe that this independence, which you and I and indeed the masses of Zimbabwe fought for, for so long should now be maintained and protected by this type of legislation? Don't you think there is something wrong?

81. I am not surprised that you have decided to maintain a state of emergency which was declared by Ian Smith on the 5th November, 1965 in preparation for his illegal action to declare, control and protect his type of independence.

82. During the protracted war our people were subjected to every kind of cruelty and oppression. No man's life was safe, it was the frequent fate of an innocent villager to be shot out hand, to be arbitrarily arrested and often to be tortured, to suffer the burning of his village, the massacre of his women and children, the destruction of crops and livestock, to suffer long years of imprisonment or to endure the pangs of long exile. The legal basis of this campaign of terror was the 'State of Emergency'.

83. You well know that in point of fact the Law and Order maintenance Act was used to undermine and subvert law and order to quite a horrendous degree, and the declaration of a 'state of emergency' itself was instrumental in creating an acute state of emergency by unleashing forces which inflicted a wave of murder and brutality upon our people which, in its savagery and disregard for humanitarian considerations, had no precedent among our people.

84. Taken together, these facts indicate clearly that for many years an unparalleled campaign of barbarism and terror was waged against the masses. Yet this campaign failed; our people did not submit, they fought back until finally victory was won and independence achieved. But what in fact has been achieved? It is painful to ask this question, for it springs from events which have increasingly darkened the horizons of Zimbabwe over the past year or more, events I am trying to summarise in this letter.

85. You knew that having created the confusion, you would then be able to take military and legal action against deliberately created 'political and armed dissid ents'; hence the arrest of men like Lookout Masuku, Dumiso Dabengwa and others, and decided to charge them with treason. It is a shame to all of us who fought for liberty, freedom and the rule of law, to see Dumiso, Masuku and others being immediately arbitrarily detained after acquittal by the High Court.

86. It is a well known fact that in Zimbabwe today, there are more people detained without trial than in fascist South Africa. Most of these people are also without formal detention orders and the next of kin have no idea as to whether they are alive or dead.
These people are not enemies of Zimbabwe, but patriots who have suffered, like us and many others, in the struggle to free their country, Zimbabwe, peasant men, women as well as young men and women who only happen to be caught, in a conflict the government itself created.

87. The double tragedy of Zimbabwe today is, firstly, that the routine and administrative use of detention, torture and arbitrary repression has been adopted by an independent government, and secondly, that this government uses the very same mercenaries and torturers as the former regime used against the struggling people. In fact the situation today is in some respects is even worse, as our government has abandoned even those standards of bourgeois legality which the Smith regime generally attempted to hide their repression behind. Under that regime you could be detained but a least you were more likely to be issued with a detention order. You were therefore, less likely to simply disappear as is the case today. The mercenaries and torturers used by the former regime are known and are very few, and therefore their exclusion from our security organs could not have disrupted those organs.

88. There are, in Zimbabwe today, so many different groups of armed men with power to do virtually anything to people. People get arrested by the C.I.O., the Law and Order Section of the police, the so-called ZIMPOLIS, the so-called ZANU Intelligence Service (which is not an arm of government), the Military Police of the Zimbabwe National Army, the Fifth Brigade (which seems to regard execution as the most effective method of arresting people), the Youth Brigade (which is also an arm of the party, but used as if it were part of the machinery of government), the Militia, by ZANU party officials, by undercover pseudo-dissidents – the list is endless. In fact, the rights of the Zimbabwe citizen as defined in the Constitution are meaningless.

89. One of the most disgraceful and shaming aspects of our independence which is difficult to defend, is that we have taken the methods and men used to oppress, torture and kill our people and tried to use them to consolidate our 'independence'. You cannot take weapons, methods and people designed to defend colonial fascism and try to use to them defend the people. It is just not possible. Today in Zimbabwe the same torturers that Smith used against the people are back in business 'defending a people's government'. They must smile to themselves when they are ordered to continue their torture of patriots by an independent government.

90. The methods of torture are also the same: electric shocks, beatings, burning with cigarettes, suffocation using wet sacks, and psychological torture. In the recent case of the State vs Dabengwa and others, the government must surely have been embarrassed when the activities of Fraser, Arnold (of CIO) and DSO Kaurayi were revealed in court. These men whose record of torture and atrocities against the people during the liberation war are well known, were brought into this case by our government to use their same techniques against the heroes of the liberation struggle.

91. In court it was revealed that Fraser assaulted, tortured and threatened ZIPRA men to tell lies against their commanders. DSO Kaurayi did the same to workers on the NITRAM farms. Arnold, the so-called chief of the investigation offered bribes and threats to witnesses to try to get them to change their evidence. Fraser has now run back to his masters in Pretoria. Arnold and Kaurayi remain to be used again to prostitute justice and bring disgrace on the memories of the fallen heroes of our struggle.

92. Under the terms of the Indemnity Act, which we condemned as barbaric and fascist during the liberation struggle, a citizen has no right of appeal or redress against those who illegally torture, maim, kill, destroy property or do any illegal act on him or against him. I am sure you realize that the result of this use of Smith's laws and torturers has been to create in an independent Zimbabwe a climate of terror and fear even more discriminate than that created by the Smith regime. Remember, there is no war in Zimbabwe today.

93. As it is in Zimbabwe, everyone faces this fear. It is a fear created by the fear the government itself obviously feels. What is it that the government is in fear of is not very clear, but the fact that our government lives in daily fear cannot be doubted. Ministers fear to walk the streets without armed men around them, roads are sealed off, convoys of armed men race through the streets sirens wailing announcing this fear.

94. The real victims of this climate of fear are the people themselves. How can the people get on with the vital task of building the nation when all around them they feel this insecurity and fear? At any moment they know that this machinery of fear and repression may be turned against them. The people of Murewa may have not yet felt the bayonets of the Fifth Brigade, but they have already heard the stories. In their faces is the fear that one day this party army may be turned against them. It is certain that some ZANU members fear that the Fifth Brigade may be turned against ZANU and that it may even turn against its creators. Is this the climate of a confident, free, proud and independent people and government? You do not teach young people to be contemptuous of human life and expect them to respect yours.

95. Mr. Prime Minister, as I have mentioned above, the way the sec urity organs of Government in their generality is being used has created fear and despondency in the minds of a wide section of our people. But, let me stress, that the activities of the Fifth Brigade in particular are something I never expected could happen in Zimbabwe. I could not make myself believe that such activities could have been carried out with your knowledge and approval.

96. It was when you were reported to have given an astounding declaration at a rally in Zhombe that I realized you support what the Fifth Brigade has done and continue to do in Matebeleland; quote "When men and women provide food for dissidents, when we get there we eradicate them. We do not select who we fight, because we cannot tell who is a dissident and who is not " (Financial Times, Telegraph and The Times, 15.4.83).

97. Comrade Prime Minister, you know that about two weeks before election day in March 1980, then Governor of Southern Rhodesia, Lord Soames, called all leaders of political parties contesting in the election and told them that "because of the security situation in the eastern Districts of Zimbabwe there could be no free and fair election there", which meant election would in fact not take place.

98. You will remember, I am sure, that about four or three days before polling day, Lord Soames unilaterally and without consultation, announced that elections will take place in all districts in the country, including the Eastern Districts. I am sure you will agree with me that, with all the goodwill in the world, the Good Governor, could not have made the 'Security Situation' in the Eastern Districts so stable in less than two weeks, to be able to conduct 'free and fair elections'.

99. You know as well as I do, that the unstable and dangerous security situation in the Eastern Districts was caused by your party, ZANU (PF) which maintained armed former ZANLA combatants throughout that area; who terrorized by beatings, tortures and even killing anyone who did not comply with ZANU (PF) directions. It was made impossible for any party other than ZANU (PF) to operate in the Eastern Districts area.

100. We in ZAPU tried to canvass support for elections in those districts, and ended up with two candidates killed, 18 party workers killed and several others severely beaten up, some of them permanently maimed, and while others disappeared to this day. I approached you and told you what your party was doing with little or no effect at all on the situation there.

101. Now that the 1985 elections are approaching ZANU (PF) has begun using the same tactics as were used in the Eastern Districts before and during the 1980 elections. This time the Fifth Brigade is being used as state machinery to terrorise and coerce the people in Matebeleland. Some believe that you are doing all this not just for electoral advantage, but that your aim is genocide.

102. As an effective coercive stunt, the Fifth Brigade was deployed in the area ostensibly to root out dissidents but in fact to terrorise the masses by beatings, torture, killings, rapings, looting, burning of villages, and literally doing anything atrocious on such a large scale as to instill fear into the people, not only in the affected areas, but that the effects of the action would pervade the entire population of Zimbabwe.

103. This has been followed by maintenance in every area of sizeable groups of the Fifth Brigade and reinforced by armed Youth Brigades in areas like Gokwe and Zhombe to organize forced 'Pungwes' (rallies held from dusk to dawn) at which the old and the young are forcibly given doses of ZANU (PF) indoctrination. This group has continued to carry out selective beatings, torture, killings and kidnappings in their respective areas. In areas like Nkayi, Lupane and Tsholotsho only sizeable groups of the Fifth Brigade are maintained. It is general practice during these 'Pungwes' that young women, schoolgirls and residents' wives are forced to have sexual intercourse with Brigadiers.

104. District Councillors, Chiefs and Headmen are o rdered by these armed young men to give numbers of people under them, and then given corresponding number of ZANU (PF) membership cards and told to return with cash and lists of names on a given day. These are the methods used for organising rallies for ZANU (PF) Ministers and other officials.

105. I know and accept that the Fifth Brigade was deployed in these areas after the murder of about 200 people in about a year and the destruction of thousands of dollars worth of government equipment by dissidents. But Mr. Prime Minister, I am sure you appreciate the absurdity of trying to protect people who have had 200 of their number killed in 12 months by dissidents while the Fifth Brigade in the process of that protection kills 3,000 to 5,000 people in six weeks.

106. I know that you have denied that any such things have taken place in Matebeleland, but the fact is that the evidence of this is irrefutable and based on the testimony of numerous firsthand witnesses, not least on that of many of the victims who survived. These victims include teachers, nurses, District Councillors, etc. Apart from victim witnesses, there are among others well known international aid organizations who were friends of Zimbabwe during the war and after independence, came to work with our people on the ground level. Added to these witnesses are different Churches which work in the affected areas. I would refer especially to the testimony of no less than 6 Catholic Bishops who were moved to issue a joint signed pastoral statement at their Easter 1983 conference. They did this, I would remind you, after I made my own disclosure at a Press Conference and in parliament late in February.

107. It has to be appreciated that, a Bishop of the Catholic Church, indeed any Christian Bishop, is a person who has devoted his life to the service of God. In order that his ministry shall be effective, he has an obvious interest in maintaining friendly and cordial relations with the government of the day. It is certainly not in his interest, or that of his flock, to act in any way which will make such relations difficult or discordant. We may conclude therefore that when he is so moved he acts from a deep sense of personal conviction and from motives which can scarcely be said to spring from self-interest.

108. The following is an extract from their statement:
"We entirely support the use of the army in a peace-keeping role. What we view with dismay are methods that have been adopted for doing so. Methods which should be firm and just have degenerated into brutality and atrocity. We censure the frightful consequences of such methods. Violent reaction against dissident activity has, to our certain knowledge, brought about the maiming and death of hundreds and hundreds of innocent people who are neither dissidents nor collaborators. We are convinced by incontrovertible evidence that many wanton atrocities and brutalities have been and are still being perpetrated. We have already forwarded such evidence to the Government".

109. I would remind you of the basis on which this testimony is made. It stems from the firsthand reports of numerous parish priests, priests who are articulate and responsible officers of their church and who are in close daily contact with the people of their parishes. Again in the interest of their work they have everything to gain from maintaining good relations with the government of the day, and much to lose from a failure to do so.

110. Hence their testimony is surely to be judged to be disinterested, just as their motives for offering it can spring from nothing but a desire to serve their people. In this light is it possible for anyone in a position of authority and hence responsibility for these outrages, and possessed of the merest sense of human sensibility and compassion to feel other than a deep sense of shame and a desire to make amends for all this grievous suffering?

111. I was amazed and bewildered when Dr. Nathan Shamuyarira dismissed the Catholic Bishop's statement as 'irresponsible, contrived propaganda'. But I thought because as Minister of Information, he would swallow what the Bishops in their well-considered statement said about his government -controlled mass media which has, to quote the same pastoral statement:

"singularly failed to keep the people of Zimbabwe properly informed of the facts which are common knowledge, both in areas concerned and outside them through the reports of reliable witnesses. The facts point to a reign of terror caused by wanton killings, woundings, beatings, burnings and rapings. Many homes have been burnt down. People in rural areas are starving, not only because of the drought, but because in some cases supplies of food have been deliberately cut off and in other cases access to food supplies has been restricted or stopped. The innocent have no recourse or redress, for fear of reprisals".

112. I was shattered when you as Prime Minister said of the Bishops' well thought and constructive pastoral letter: quote:

"The seven Catholic Bishops's pastoral statement sermonizing my Government on the morality of our military operations in Matebeleland as they affect human rights and our policy of reconciliation is the latest pronouncement on the subject. You further said the Bishops were playing to the international gallery and you are mere megaphone agents of your external masters" – "this band of Jeremiahs". "In these circumstances, your allegiance and loyalty to Zimbabwe becomes extremely questionable" considering that the Church in general and the Catholic Bishops in particular on the question of human rights, were very outspoken during our war of independence, one wonders where we are being headed to.

113. Looking at your attitude towards this most serious occurrence in your country, it appears that for many of our people the result of a 15-year armed struggle has not been to achieve the liberties for which they fought, but an increase in the oppression against which they took up arms in the first place. I agree completely with the Bishops when they declare, "These brutal methods will have the opposite effect to what the Government is intending to achieve", and we would add that terror did not work under Smith and it will not work today under us.

114. As a direct result of Government terrorism thousands of people have fled into neighbouring territory and many, many more have left their villages and gone into hiding. In keeping with the worst excesses of the Smith era there has been the burning of villages and other barbarities referred to in the report, as well as the widespread practice of extortion and attempts at compulsory indoctrination as stated in preceding paragraphs.

115. This is not government, it is the abuse of government, an abuse which transforms the rule of law into the law of rule. As such it cannot lead to a free, united, peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe. But to one in which oppression, division, violence and poverty will shadow all our hopes, and make a mockery of the freedom struggle in which so many heroes gave their lives.

116. In the final section of their statement the Bishops appeal to the Government to use its authority to stop these excesses and call for the establishment of a judicial commission. We fully support this call. But I feel that the problem facing us in Zimbabwe today requires an approach much more resolute, much more embracing than ever attempted by ZANU and ZAPU before. A judicial commission as proposed by the Bishops should be a part of wider machinery composed of a wide spectrum of our society, who should examine our composite problems together with government, seek and find solutions which should be implemented jointly by the people and government. If the people of Zimbabwe and their government fail to find a solution to this serious situation in which we find ourselves, our enemies will exploit the situation and destroy us.

117. Remember, Prime Minister, Zimbabwe and the people have to defend the country from these enemies. But today Zimbabwe is defenceless because the people live in fear, not of these enemies, but of their own government. What has happened to the brave and determined, confident and fearless people of Zimbabwe and their soldiers of liberation, who showed the world that no power on earth could prevent us from achieving our freedom?

That was a time when even our enemies had to admire us for our courage and determination. Today our enemies laugh at us. What they see is a divided, confused and frightened people, led by a divided, confused and frightened government. Government which has the love, respect and confidence of the people does not have to use the laws and weapons of colonial regimes to protect itself. The people themselves will protect their government if they have full trust in it. Fear is a weapon of despair, used by those who fear the people. This is the time and opportunity to rebuild trust, find the solution to our problems and defend the country as a united people.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua M. Nkomo

 

---

Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now.