HARARE Civil society activists from Matabeleland have declared the North Korean national soccer team unwelcome to train in Bulawayo because their presence in the region would reopen old wounds of the infamous Gukurahundi era. The government unleashed in the 1980s the armys notorious North Korean trained 5th Brigade in a crackdown known as Gukurahundi that was carried out ostensibly to rid the southern Matabeleland and Midlands regions of armed dissidents opposed to then Prime Minister Robert Mugabes rule.
An estimated 20 000 innocent civilians, almost all of them belonging to the minority Ndebele tribe, died in the crackdown that is one of the darkest periods in Zimbabwes post-colonial history.
Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi announced last Wednesday that the North Korean soccer team had accepted to train in Zimbabwe during their preparations for the World Cup finals in South Africa.
According to Mzembi, the government had approached five World Cup qualifiers England, the United States, Australia, Brazil and North Korea to train in the country and only North Korea took the offer.??
The Koreans are scheduled to play a series of friendly matches against Zimbabwean teams in both Harare and Bulawayo.
But this has sparked a storm particularly in Bulawayo where some activists announced in an email message to the media that they are preparing protests against a country which they say helped Mugabe crush the local population between 1982 and 1987.
The activists are campaigning to have the North Koreans barred from coming to train at Barbourfields Stadium because their presence in Bulawayo would be a symbolic insult that would reopen old wounds and remind many that the relationship between Zimbabwe and North Korea was cemented by the blood of our kin.??
South Africa based Zimbabwean actor Bhekilizwe Ndlovu, who is famous for his role as AK in the once popular local ZTV soap Amakorokoza, said the North Koreans should be pushed out of town.??
This could begin serious dialogue, action and closure to this problem (of the effects of Gukurahundi atrocities) that continues to haunt us, said Ndlovu.??
The Gukurahundi massacres remain a sensitive subject especially because Mugabe has refused to apologise for the killings although the Zimbabwean leader has called the crackdown a moment of madness.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News