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Moses Mzila Ndlovu urges big attendance to UK Matebele 'Gukurahundi' Genocide Conference

by Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Secretary for Information and Publicity
18 Oct 2018 at 08:58hrs | Views
Last week the 1893 Mthwakazi (Matebeleland) Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM)  confirmed and announced that Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu will be attending the 1st Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide Conference in the United Kingdom scheduled for 3rd November 2018 and will be the main speaker of the conference. Subsequent to this confirmation, Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu is urging people resident in the United Kingdom and Europe to spare some time on the 3rd November 2018 and attend this important conference in numbers and make it a success. Meanwhile the 1893 MHRRM is working flat out to ensure the conference is a success and urges all to heed Mr Ndlovu's call for people to make preparations to attend the conference in numbers.

The Conference is scheduled to take place in Luton town, located 46 kilometres North of London, United Kingdom.  Below are the details of the Conference:

Venue: The Lansdowne Hall, The Lansdowne Club, 70 New Bedford Road, Luton, Bedford, LU3 1BS.
Time: 11:00 am to 17:00 pm (British Time)
Theme: Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide: Together Towards Truth, Justice, Reparations and
Healing for Matebeleland.

Mr Ndlovu is a former Movement for Democratic Change legislator in Zimbabwe. He is also a former Zimbabwean Minister of State in the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration in the short-lived 2009 to 2012 Global Political Agreement (GPA) Government of Zimbabwe.

Mr Ndlovu's strong, principled and fierce advocacy for Truth, Justice and Reparations for the Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide has landed him in rough and dirty Zimbabwean cells. On the 15th April 2011, Mr Ndlovu together with Reverend Marko Mkandla, was arrested on his way to Victoria Falls in Matebeleland North, for having addressed a Matebeleland "Gukurahundi" Genocide Memorial Service. At the time of this arrest, Mr Ndlovu was still a Minister of State in the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration. The arrest was calculated to humiliate him and demean as well as ridicule his Ministerial position. Since then he has received trumped up charges for various things but has been acquitted in court.

In 1983, the then Government of Robert Gabriel Mugabe unleashed a North Korean trained crack unit called the 5th Brigade of Zimbabwe in Matebeleland. This unit caused a lot of untold suffering in its genocidal forays in our territory and turned Matebeleland into its ethnic killing fields and ethnic "rivers of blood". The result was the death of between 50 000 to 100 00 law-abiding and God-fearing Matebele people. Thousands endured torture and rape of unimaginable proportions. The survivors remain traumatised, enslaved and held hostage in Zimbabwe by the same tyrannical rulers who committed and continue to commit heinous crimes against them.

The planned Matebele Genocide Memorization events of the above Genocide remain banned in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean police readily pounce on any Matebeleland activists and leaders that peacefully arrange these memorial gatherings and prevent them from going ahead.

Mr Ndlovu's attendance to the conference will be a big boost to the 1893 Mthwakazi (Matebeleland) Human Rights Restoration Movement as it ups its campaign for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for the Matebeleland Genocide that happened in the 80s in Zimbabwe and continues in various forms and guises to this day.

The Conference will provide an opportunity to disseminate information about the genocide, offer a networking platform with other Nations that have suffered Genocide as well as maintain the campaign for Truth, Justice and Reparations on the international radar.

Several topics regarding the Matebele "Gukurahundi" Genocide will be presented including survivor's narratives or testimonials and human rights perspectives as well as sharing experiences of how other parts of the world are dealing with their own Genocides and campaigns for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing.

 Professor Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, an international organization that, "...exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder" will be providing a short video on the Matebele "Gukurahundi" Genocide for watching on the day. The Movement will also avail Zenzele Ndebele's recent documentary on the Genocide for watching on this day.

 It is hoped that the Conference will emerge with a Consensus Statement on the way forward on the redress of this Genocide, a statement that will seek to create a road map and a comprehensive Agenda from survivors themselves and stake holders alike in dealing with this issue.

For more information about the Conference kindly contact the 1893 MHRRM on +44 (0) 7889 422 695

Source - Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Secretary for Information and Publicity