Tsvangirai wants Matebeleland bodies exhumed

Speaking at the commemoration of five MDC-T activists who were killed during the violent 2008 elections, Tsvangirai said that the exhumations in Mt Dawrin are only but cheap politics. ” We have recently witnessed the exhumation of dead bodies in one corner of the country for cheap political gain. We should accord those that died violent and unnatural deaths the respect they deserve,” said Tsvangirai.

An estimated 20 000 people died during the 1980 Matebeland disturbances when Mugabe as has become the norm unleashed the army to crush dissent in the predominantly Ndebele regions of Matebeleland and Midlands. “There are graves in Matabeleland the Midlands provinces ; innocent victims of a senseless and systematic genocide and we all wonder whether the current exhumations will spread to that corner of the country as well. I know all of us here are angry and tormented; not least because those who were close to us were violently killed by the merchants of death. Many of the people still lie in shallow graves and Tsvangirai said that they should be accorded respect in death.

“The liberation struggle, the Gukurahundi massacres and our own struggle for democracy have resulted in needless casualties of great magnitude; a magnitude that must be shameful to ourselves as the leadership of this great country.

“We should ensure that in creating a final resting place for their earthly remains, we leave no stone unturned in determining who killed them and why and ensuring that their relatives achieve the disclosure they deserve,” said Tsvangirai. Zanu PF prop up organisations have been at the forefront of exhumations in Mashonaland province and the greatest discovery to date has been of bodies in Mt Darwin at Monkey William Mine in Bembera village.

The Mugabe-led party claims that the bodies were of women, children and liberation war fighters killed by Rhodesian forces 32 years ago and thrown into the mine. Zanu PF propagandists have been stepping on each other toes on the state controlled ZBC condemning the so-called Rhodesian massacres.

However, they has never been mention of the mass graves in Matabeleland much to the chagrin of ordinary Zimbabweans. Mugabe has not made any formal apology for the massacres, and consequently wounds are still fresh in the minds of survivors.