News / Local
US Ambassador defends US silence on Gukurahundi
26 Aug 2011 at 13:16hrs | Views
Addressing Bulawayo residents at a meeting organised by Bulawayo Agenda, this week, United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, tried to defend US's silence on Gukurahundi.
Ray has attributed his country and the Western world's silence to the news blackout that characterised the period 1982-87 when an estimated 20 000 civilians were killed during the armed dissident era.
Ray said the massacres coincided with the Cold War period and most Western countries were preoccupied with the global phenomenon, hence their lack of appreciation of the genocide.
Activists from Matabeleland have accused the US and its Western allies of keeping mum over period. Most activists accuses the West of treating President Robert Mugabe as their "blue-eyed boy" hence their silence over the genocide.
In 1994, President Mugabe was awarded the Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Gukurahundi genocide has hogged the limelight during public discussions in southern Matabeleland, which bore the brunt of the massacres.
Thabo kunene rubbished Ambassador Ray's utterances, he said there is nothing to defend here. US and Britain were happy to use Mugabe to crush Zapu and Ndebeles because Zapu was backed by Russians-who were the enemies of the British and Americans. So in the event of the superpowers fighting amongst themselves, they sacrifice innocent people. Western countries have no morales at all. They have all along supported evil and war mongers like Sadam, Bin laden and Mugabe and others when it suited them. Now that they have no use of Mugabe and no cold war, they want him out of power and replace him with another of their puppet whom we know.
Ray has attributed his country and the Western world's silence to the news blackout that characterised the period 1982-87 when an estimated 20 000 civilians were killed during the armed dissident era.
Ray said the massacres coincided with the Cold War period and most Western countries were preoccupied with the global phenomenon, hence their lack of appreciation of the genocide.
In 1994, President Mugabe was awarded the Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Gukurahundi genocide has hogged the limelight during public discussions in southern Matabeleland, which bore the brunt of the massacres.
Thabo kunene rubbished Ambassador Ray's utterances, he said there is nothing to defend here. US and Britain were happy to use Mugabe to crush Zapu and Ndebeles because Zapu was backed by Russians-who were the enemies of the British and Americans. So in the event of the superpowers fighting amongst themselves, they sacrifice innocent people. Western countries have no morales at all. They have all along supported evil and war mongers like Sadam, Bin laden and Mugabe and others when it suited them. Now that they have no use of Mugabe and no cold war, they want him out of power and replace him with another of their puppet whom we know.
Source - Sapa
