MUTARE The Church and Civil Society Forum (CCSF) has called for the formation of an independent commission to lead the national reconciliation process that at the moment is overseen by the governments Ministry of National Healing and Reconciliation. Speaking at national healing symposium held in Mutare city last week, a CCSF representative, Sylvester Damba, said such an independent commission should be established through an act of Parliament.
This independent commission must have powers and authority to effectively draw up intervention mechanisms, said Damba, who also said that the need for national healing and reconciliation should not be manipulated to grant general amnesty to perpetrators of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. According to Damba, the CCSF has agreed on four principles it believes should guide the national reconciliation process.
The first one is that there is no amnesty for genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, rape and other sexual crimes. The second is that there should be no guarantee of job security for those found responsible for gross human rights violations, he said.
The CCSF also wants comprehensive reparations for victims of human rights violations while it said a platform should be provided for both victims and perpetrators to tell their stories. Damba said national healing and reconciliation should be accompanied by an overhaul of the judiciary to ensure that the courts and other law and order institutions were manned by people who are committed to upholding and defending human rights and justice.
Human rights abuses and politically motivated violence and murder that have been features of Zimbabwes politics for decades now have left the nation traumatised and in serious need of rehabilitation to achieve national unity.
The coalition government has prioritised national reconciliation in a bid to unite Zimbabweans who last year experienced some of the worst political violence in the run-up to a presidential run-off election between President Robert Mugabe and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, who is now Prime Minister in the unity government, eventually pulled out of the run-off citing violence that his party says left more than 200 of its members dead and at least another 200 000 displaced, leaving Mugabe to claim victory uncontested.
Western governments and a host of African nations rejected Mugabes victory while the African Union and the regional Southern African Development Community piled pressure on the Zimbabwean leader to form a power-sharing government with the opposition.
While the unity government is agreed on the need for healing and reconciliation it is divided over the issue of amnesty for perpetrators of human rights abuses and other crimes, with Mugabes Zanu (PF) party believed to favour a blanket amnesty which is opposed by the two MDC formations.
A blanket amnesty would allow Zanu (PF) leaders and security forces commanders to escape punishment for human rights abuses and other crimes including the massacre of an estimated 20 000 innocent civillians during the infamous Gukurahundi campaign in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the 80s.
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