Lack of accountability in past human rights abuses continue to rock Zim

The MDC-T Organising Secretary Abednicho Bhebhe has said lack of accountability for past human rights abuses has remained a serious problem in Zimbabwe since 1980.

He said government has failed to ensure justice for victims of human rights violations in which Mugabe's Zanu PF, backed by state security organs, committed widespread systematic abuses such as torture and beatings leading to the killing of unarmed civilians in the 1980s in Matabeleland and Midlands, and the death and displacement of opposition supporters in election related violence in 2002, 2005, and 2008.

"White commercial farmers have also not been spared," he said. "They have been on the receiving end of Zanu PF's violent tendencies, leaving many dead, displaced and nursing injuries following the violent and often chaotic farm grabs that Mugabe defended as necessary to correct colonial land imbalances. Mugabe has boasted of having degrees in violence, and has been quick to warn fellow Zimbabweans that he stands ready to unleash repressive state machinery to crack against any dissent to his misrule."

Bhebhe said however, with his degrees in violence, one way or the other and at some point, victims of Mugabe's violent tendencies will have to be compensated.

"There is always a price to pay for Mugabe's actions, even when he is long gone. His assets dotted in Zimbabwe and hidden elsewhere in the Far East will have to be traced so that proceeds from these sales would form part of the compensation to victims of his misrule," said Bhebhe.

"It is encouraging therefore that a precedent has been set following the sale of a government house in Cape Town, South Africa, which went for 3.76 million rand ($282,000), to pay compensation to displaced white commercial farmers."

Bhebhe said the dispossessed commercial farmers were assisted by AfriForum to enforce a 2008 ruling by the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) regional court, the SADC Tribunal, in South Africa.

He said the tribunal ruled that Mugabe's land grabs were unlawful, racist, and in contravention of applicable international law.

"Justice has prevailed for the commercial farmers who could only dream of such had they approached the courts in Zimbabwe," Bhebhe said.

"The development should surely open floodgates to many nursing physical, psychological and emotional wounds, who have failed to find justice in the courts of Zimbabwe. There are quite a number of human rights abuses that have been perpetrated by Mugabe and his Zanu PF against the citizens of this country in breach of local, regional and international charters on human and people's rights."

Bhebhe there is need to find closure to past human rights violations, such as the emotive issue pertaining to the Gukurahundi genocide, by ensuring redress and compensation to the victims.

"In a final note, Mugabe (with his degrees of violence) and his cronies should be reminded that dictatorships like his always fall in embarrassing fashion. Romania's Nicolas Chocescu and his wife Elena, quickly come to mind," said Bhebhe. "He was the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989. Ceaușescu's regime was brutal and repressive like Mugabe's. His regime collapsed after he ordered his security forces to fire on anti-government demonstrators in the city of Timisoara on 17 December 1989. The demonstrations spread to Bucharest and became known as the Romanian Revolution. Ceaușescu Elena fled the capital in a helicopter but were captured by the armed forces."

Bhebhe said on 25 December the couple were hastily tried and convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of genocide and sabotage of the Romanian economy in an approximate one hour long court session.

"Ceaușescu and his wife were then shot by a firing squad," said Bhebhe.