Gukurahundi: Upon reading some of the material, and from our evidence gathered - it is apparent to us that the term “Gukurahundi” fails to portray the absolute horrors of that genocide - the hunting down and brutal torture, murder of children, women and men folk by deranged psychopaths - all upon the orders of Mugabe, Mnangagwa and 'others'.
The term itself has been framed as an almost poetic “moment of madness” (Mugabe’s cynical words). This period wrought incomprehensible brutality that we in the West, and within the British Establishment can never fully understand. That period within Zimbabwe from 1983-1987 cannot be ignored, cannot be cured with “an apology” - it requires JUSTICE - because some of the perpetrators of that unimaginable genocide are alive today and within the current regime. Like the sword of Damaclease - it is still there - still an aberration - yet to see Justice.
No, Gukurahundi is not the correct description; it is from the same depraved psychosis that started this horrific genocide itself. It needs a new, fully descriptive terminology, one that we cannot yet construct in our minds
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- Written by: various authors over last 37-41 Years
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The Petition as physically delivered to The UK Prime Minister; Sir Keir Starmer, the UK FCDO and the Commonwealth Secretariat, is available as a PDF at these links to these multiple web addresses – in case of issues with web access. We should like you to re-examine this period in Zimbabwe's history to see who the guilty are within their current administration. To seek support for justice of those who have died, been injured/maimed and/or raped and displaced/disenfranchised.
On the 22nd December 2024 it will signify 37 years since the 'ending' of this Genocide - by the signing of a "Unity Accord" although the Zanu PF quest for a One-Party-State continues - as do the State ordered abductions, murders, rapes, disenfranchisement, looting and false imprisonment!!
Gukurahundi and Genocide Matters
Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo: President of ZAPU
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) [and the International Association of Genocide Scholars] estimated that over 20,000 people lost their lives, but their figure was conservative as it covered one district in Matabeleland North (Tsholotsho) and another in Matabeleland South (Matobo). Midlands Province as a whole was not considered. By all definitions, a genocide was committed by the ZANU-led government of Zimbabwe using primarily the Fifth Brigade which was directly answerable to the then Prime Minister, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and no one else. The Fifth Brigade was created solely for Gukurahundi and disbanded with the signing of the Unity Accord on 22 December 1987. Members of the Fifth Brigade were integrated into regular army units with many of them posing as gallant veterans of the liberation struggle, promoted and decorated by their Commander-in-Chief.
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- Written by: Prof. Gregory Stanton, Prof. Ted Robert Gurr, and Dr. Helen Fein.
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RESOLUTION ON STATE REPRESSION IN ZIMBABWE
By The International Association of Genocide Scholars
We, the leadership and membership of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a world-wide professional association of experts on genocide, call upon the government {regime} of Zimbabwe to reverse its discriminatory and life-threatening policies toward the urban poor and supporters of the political opposition. The government has in recent years used food as a political weapon by denying it to people thought to support Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
On June 1, 2005, the government agreed to resumption of international food donations to feed up to four million people but has objected to creation of World Food Program centres to distribute food to the general population. Instead food will be directed to government-controlled institutions including schools, orphanages, and work programs open only to ZANU-PF government party members. Simultaneously the government has initiated Operation Masarmbatsvina (“drive out rubbish”) to evict more than a million urban poor by demolishing squatter shacks. More than 22,000 people have already been arrested in the first few days of the crackdown, according to a police spokesman. News reports tell of hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes, with many fleeing to the outskirts of cities where they are camped with no shelter, food, or means of transportation to whatever jobs they may have had. The Zimbabwe government organized major massacres during the 1980’s against the Matabele people, which cost over 20,000 lives. The massacres were carried out by an all-Shona army brigade trained by North Korean advisers. The Mugabe government has again organized Shona youth militias, nick-named the “Green Bombers,” who terrorise members of the political opposition, many of whom are Matabele. The government’s denial of food thus has an ominous ethnic dimension, an early warning sign of potential genocide by attrition. Denial of food to targeted groups and forced evacuation of poor communities are among the tactics used in past politicides.
These policies are creating a humanitarian crisis for targeted ethnic, economic, and political groups in Zimbabwe. They constitute an early stage of a politicide aimed at eliminating ethnic, class and political opponents of the Government. We call on governments and international organizations to condemn policies of the Zimbabwe government that target the Matabele ethnic group, the urban poor, and political opponents of the Mugabe regime.
- Zimbabwe’s neighbours, the Republic of South Africa above all, should exert political and diplomatic pressure on the government to reverse these malign policies.
- The African Union should take similar actions in coordination with the Commonwealth and the European Union.
- The United Nations’ World Food Program should insist that the food aid it has recently agreed to supply be distributed to all in need, without regard to political affiliation.
- International financial institutions on which Zimbabwe depends for investment and loans should make it clear that assistance is conditional on government policies that deal equitably and humanely with the needs of all citizens.
- NGO’s should publicize the escalating humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe and advocate preventive responses by all members of the international community.
Adopted unanimously at the biennial meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars,
Boca Raton, Florida, June 7, 2005.
Prof. Gregory Stanton (First Vice President,) Prof. Ted Robert Gurr, and Dr. Helen Fein.