David Magagula, spokesman for the Matabeleland Freedom Party (MFP), told The Zimbabwean that it was vital not to disturb forensic evidence. When these graves are opened, we must have forensic experts there to detail the crime scene, he said. We need to take DNA from bones so we can identify victims, and then there is the search for evidence that may be used in war-crime trials.
Similar work in identifying remains and cause of death is underway in Bosnia, East Timor and Cambodia where massacres have officially be named as genocide. Magagula said the MFP was in touch with Bosnian investigators who were willing to help in Zimbabwe.
The MFP has long called for Gukurahundi to be classified as a genocide and their efforts were echoed at Bulawayo Town Hall last weekend when ZAPU leaders paid tribute to the late ZIPRA commander, Ackim Matthew Ndlovu who died earlier this month. ZAPU secretary general, Paul Siwela told a crowd of more than 500 mourners that while the government officially describes Gukurahundi as a disturbance it was in fact a genocide by Zanu (PF).
What Mugabe and Zanu did in Matabeleland and the Midlands during the 80s was not a disturbance but genocide. Imagine more than 20 000 people, enough to fill up Barbourfields Stadium being killed and you call that disturbance! That is genocide, Siwela said.
Officers from the Central Intelligence Organisation approached Siwela and accused him of speaking against the state, but the agents fled when confronted by ZAPU security.
David Magagula said the MFP supported ZAPUs commitment to classify the murders as genocide and hoped that the recent appointment of Zimbabwe writer Geoff Hill to the worlds leading group on crimes against humanity would hasten the matter.
Magagula said that while the three major parties in Matabeleland had differing political agendas, there was unity when it came to Gukurahundi and compared the situation with the government of Israel.
Look at the Israeli Knesset (parliament),he said. There are 19 political parties there, some with very different views, but on the Nazi holocaust against Jews, they speak with one voice.
Magagula said his party was keen to form a Genocide Alliance with ZAPU and the Patriotic Union of Matabeleland (PUMA) through which the three would coordinate their statements and policies on Gukurahundi.
This is such an important issue for the people of Matabeleland that we must not let it become politicised, he said. We owe it to the thousands of victims to treat this as a sacred trust.
Post published in: News