“I really think it is essential,” he said in an interview. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be church led but, obviously, churches should be involved. It must involve all the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered so terribly under Robert Mugabe.”
Many young Zimbabwean lawyers have told the BBC, and other media organizations, that Mugabe should stand trial at the International Court at The Hague because of his authorization of crimes against the population in Matabeleland in the 1980s.
Catholic Church sources estimate that as many as 25,000 to 30,000 men. women and children were slaughtered by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) between 1982-1987.
Lawrence Vambe, born in 1917, was once a close friend and admirer of Robert Mugabe. Both attended the famous Jesuit-run Kutama Mission in Mashonaland.
In a recent editorial “The Tablet” says that “to remove a festering sore caused by past illegality on the part of the (Mugabe) Government and security officials” something along the lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, may be necessary.
Under a headline “Life without Mugabe” the paper says: “Church leaders, as in South Africa, could have a crucial role in setting up that process. It is a crisis, but it is not yet a disaster. Even worse problems were overcome in Kenya.”
Vambe said that the ideal man to oversee a Zimbabwean Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be Mike Auret, who was the head of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace when Ian Smith ran Rhodesia and during the opening years of Zimbabwe’s Independence after 1980. Auret, a Zimbabwean citizen, presently lives in Ireland but maintains close contact with some of the estimated 400,000 Zimbabwean exiles now living in the UK. – What do you think? Email your view to news@thezimbabwean.co.uk
Post published in: News