News / Press Release
'Gukurahundi a closed chapter', Mnangagwa must shut up: MDC
18 Jul 2011 at 04:17hrs | Views
PRESS RELEASE
Response to The Chronicle story of 18-July 2011 entitled "Gukurahundi a closed chapter"
Mnangwagwa must shut-up on Gukurahundi.
The MDC believes it is not for perpetrators of the genocide to tell the victims to forgive and forget about what happened to them. It is a sad irony to note that those that are pronouncing closure of the chapter are the same people that presided over the recruitment and training of operatives for the massacre of our people.
No amount of attack on those that search for truths and call for justice for the victims of this massacre will wash away the blood of our people from the hands of Emmerson Mnangwaga and his group. For us Gukurahundi constitute the major of the justification for the Inclusion of Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration.
We sadly note that Mnangwaga's statement undermines Article VII of the GPA that covers the promotion of equality, national healing, cohesion and unity.
The party takes Mnangwagwa's assertion as an insult to the victims of Zanu PF's grand plan of exterminating the Ndebele people. We believe that this is a very insensitive and deliberate attack on the conscience people of Matabeleland and the Midlands who painfully suffered in the hands of Gukurahundi.
As a party we find it surprising that there are some people like Emmerson Mnangwaga who believe that Zanu PF has a good record yet the mention of Zanu PF invokes memories of Gukurahundi to the people of Matabeleland. To that end we want to re emphasize the subject of Gukurahundi is not yet closed, can't be closed and will never be closed as we continue to see its other phase of marginalisation of the survivors of massacre.
As MDC we would like to reiterate our position that reconciliation can't and shouldn't be imposed on people, the victims must be given a platform to fully disclose how they were brutally tortured, their relatives mercilessly butchered and how they want the issue resolved.
Response to The Chronicle story of 18-July 2011 entitled "Gukurahundi a closed chapter"
Mnangwagwa must shut-up on Gukurahundi.
The MDC believes it is not for perpetrators of the genocide to tell the victims to forgive and forget about what happened to them. It is a sad irony to note that those that are pronouncing closure of the chapter are the same people that presided over the recruitment and training of operatives for the massacre of our people.
No amount of attack on those that search for truths and call for justice for the victims of this massacre will wash away the blood of our people from the hands of Emmerson Mnangwaga and his group. For us Gukurahundi constitute the major of the justification for the Inclusion of Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration.
We sadly note that Mnangwaga's statement undermines Article VII of the GPA that covers the promotion of equality, national healing, cohesion and unity.
The party takes Mnangwagwa's assertion as an insult to the victims of Zanu PF's grand plan of exterminating the Ndebele people. We believe that this is a very insensitive and deliberate attack on the conscience people of Matabeleland and the Midlands who painfully suffered in the hands of Gukurahundi.
As a party we find it surprising that there are some people like Emmerson Mnangwaga who believe that Zanu PF has a good record yet the mention of Zanu PF invokes memories of Gukurahundi to the people of Matabeleland. To that end we want to re emphasize the subject of Gukurahundi is not yet closed, can't be closed and will never be closed as we continue to see its other phase of marginalisation of the survivors of massacre.
As MDC we would like to reiterate our position that reconciliation can't and shouldn't be imposed on people, the victims must be given a platform to fully disclose how they were brutally tortured, their relatives mercilessly butchered and how they want the issue resolved.
Source - MDC Information Department
