Otherwise how could the government propose setting up a Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and with the same piece of legislation prohibit it from investigating Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina and the many other acts of violence and abuse committed against innocent citizens of this country?
The Bill that – as history shows – parliamentarians will grumble about but will still vote for on the orders of their parties, seeks to empower the commission to investigate people in their individual capacities, as well as state and corporate institutions accused of rights violations. But the proposed law, according to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, prohibits the commission from investigating acts of violence or rights abuses committed before February 2009.
What an insult to the thousands of victims of the 5th Brigade buried in the depths of disused mineshafts and the many unmarked mass graves across the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. What an insult to the thousands made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina! What an insult to Zimbabweans terrorized before, during and after the 2008 elections!
Messrs Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube (or is it Arthur Mutambara) why give us this toothless bulldog?
Some among us have argued that the commission is a step in the right direction and must be encouraged, that change to a better Zimbabwe is going to be incremental and not a one-day wonder, that raising the Gukurahundi atrocities now could scuttle the democratic project.
But what kind of democracy is this, that we can only build by avoiding the truth? And for how long are we going to cover up for Gukurahundi as having been a moment of madness and yet doing nothing to ensure justice for the victims of the 5th Brigades killer squads?
The point that those behind the human rights commission must come to terms with is that Zimbabwe can never be a true democracy, nor will it ever know true peace and reconciliation, when those who committed Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina and the political violence of the last decade have not been brought to book.
As a matter of principle, we do not subscribe to the primitive notion of retribution as a way to settle scores. We are for nation building and reconciliation. But shame upon this generation of Zimbabweans should we allow politicians to write impunity into our national law as the government proposes to do with its human rights commission Bill.
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga