'Healing' project for 1980s massacre victims

Forty years after the Gukurahundi massacre in Zimbabwe, authorities has launched a ‘community engagement’ programme that they say will promote ‘healing, peace and unity’ in the survivor communities. The killings, perpetrated by a feared army unit in Zimbabwe’s southwestern and central provinces in the 1980s, are believed to have been committed on the orders of late former President Robert Mugabe. However, Al Jazeera reports that many of those affected are sceptical about the latest overture, and say justice cannot come from a government made up of officials who are alleged to have been involved in the killings, and one they say has not yet fully recognised the weight of the atrocities committed. ‘It was a genocide, even the government knows that,’ activist Mbuso Fuzwayo said. ‘But there is no acknowledgement. That is one important aspect we expect from the government,’ he said. Between 1982 and 1987, the Fifth Brigade, a North Korean-trained unit of the Zimbabwean army, cracked down on mostly Ndebele-speaking communities in the southwestern regions of North and South Matabeleland, as well as the Midlands province located in the central area. Codenamed Gukurahundi, meaning ‘the rain that washes away the chaff’ in Shona, the operation was meant to target dissident fighters of the political party, Zimbabwe Africa People’s Union (Zapu). The Fifth Brigade, however, not only attacked Zapu members, it also targeted civilians in mass numbers, and at random, including women and children. The exact number of those killed remains unclear, but local sources put it at at least 20 000 deaths.

The government has never officially acknowledged the killings, and has denied there was a genocide. Now, reports Al Jazeera, Mnangagwa has launched the Gukurahundi Community Engagement Programme. ‘This chapter serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of unity and the devastating consequences of disunity,’ Mnangagwa said at the launch. The programme is expected to see local chiefs lead the reconciliation process, supported by women’s representatives and religious leaders. It will consist primarily of community hearings where victims give their accounts and provide evidence. Officials say survivors will be provided with psycho-social support and benefits like pensions, health services, and free education.