'Mugabe clemency order cannot cover genocide'

THE National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) has said the statement by Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi that perpetrators of Gukurahundi could not be prosecuted because they were covered by the late former President Robert Mugabe's clemency order of 1990 were misplaced because a clemency order cannot cover genocide.

NTJWG vice-chair Dzikamai Bere made the remarks while addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday.

He was responding to the claims made by Ziyambi before the International Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva Switzerland on August 18.

The committee was discussing a periodic review of Zimbabwe when Ziyambi said the Gukarahundi chapter had been closed after Mugabe delivered an amnesty.

Ziyambi also added that the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) had no mandate to deal with mass atrocities which occurred during Gukurahundi.

But Bere said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration had no intention of addressing the Gukurahundi massacres because it is loosely referring to them as mere "disturbances".

"Our position is that the amnesty granted through Clemency Order No 1 of 1990 did not resolve justice and accountability issues relating to the Gukurahundi massacres," he said.

"This position has also been affirmed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has openly declared the need to address this issue, albeit through the engagement of chiefs.

"In terms of international law, amnesties, in which Clemency Order No 1 of 1990 falls in, do not apply to genocide and crimes against humanity, categories in which the Gukurahundi massacre squarely falls into.

"We remind the minister and the government of the African Commission's position in Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum v Zimbabwe (245/02), where it was pointed out that forestalling the right to a remedy for victims without placing alternative mechanisms encourages impunity and is in breach of Articles 1 and 7(1) of the African Charter."

Bere added: "The NPRC is thus mandated and obliged to resolve justice and accountability issues relating to the Gukurahundi massacre. The government and the Minister must not disregard the constitution through any action or utterances which suggest that the Gukarahundi massacre falls outside the ambit of the NPRC's mandate."