News / Press Release
1893 MHRRM Launches Genocide Memorial Day Commemorative Events in the UK and South Africa
28 Apr 2019 at 07:57hrs | Views
Each year the 1893 Mthwakazi (Matebeleland) Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM), in partnership with stakeholders will be organising and encouraging the organising of Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide Memorial Day (MGGD) Commemorative Events in Matebeleland, United Kingdom, South Africa and in other parts of the World to remember 50 000 to 100 000 Matebele who were murdered by Gukurahundist Zanu PF Shona Nationalists in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1987 using a North Korean trained brigade called the Gukurahundi 5th Brigade of Zimbabwe. The Memorial Days are also ear-marked to remember thousands who suffered from starvation due to a food embargo and thousands who suffered mass beatings, mass rapes and mass displacement from Matebeleland to other countries.
For those not in the know, Gukurahundi is a word from the ethnic Shona language in Zimbabwe that means the early rains which washes away the chaff before the spring rains. The Shona Nationalists gave this Genocide the name Gukurahundi and trained a specific Brigade, assisted by North Koreans, called the Gukurahundi 5th Brigade of Zimbabwe. This brigade was equated to the early rains that wash away the chaff before the spring rains and the Matebeleland people were equated to the chaff that needed to be washed away before the creation of a monolithic Shona super-state of Zimbabwe. The brigade was responsible for carrying out the genocide in Matebeleland in the 80s.
South Africa and UK Memorial Commemorative Events
For the time being, planned MGGDs will take place in South Africa at the end of May with a March and then a Matebeleland Genocide Memorial and Self Determination Football Cup Competition. In the UK the MGGD will be on the 29th June 2019 at:
St Martin's Church Centre, 33 Parkstone Road, Desford, LE9 9HY, Leicestershire
Time 12:00 noon to 18:00 pm.
MGG Awareness Day
As a prelude to the MGGD in the UK, the Movement will be carrying out a Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide Awareness Day at the South Bank University, London, on the 10th May 2019 from 10:00 am until 16:00 pm. This will focus on creating awareness of this genocide with university students and sharing our Statement of Commitment as well as inviting them to support the 29th June 2019 MGGD in Leicestershire.
The Memorial Days will be used as a campaign platform for the establishment of an independent and competent UN assembled Matebeleland International Commission of Inquiry into the Genocide for the purposes of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland people in Zimbabwe.
The MGGDs will also be a focal point to bring together traditional leadership, various human rights organizations, various faith-based organizations and various political organizations and their leadership alongside the survivors of the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide.
The Commemorative Memorial Day Events will feature personal testimonies from survivors of the Genocide, films, poetry and music. It will also feature shared testimonies from other surviving genocide victims of other Nations of the world.
Our Declaration Statement of Commitment
1. We painfully recognize that the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide was the first Genocide of its kind in post-colonial Southern Africa and that it must be universally condemned by the international community.
2. We value all those who made sacrifices to expose the Genocide to the world and all those who sacrificed their lives to protect Matebeleland people from the evils of Gukurahundism or those who have given sanctuary to the people of Matebeleland around the world.
3. We commit to working with all stakeholders in Matebeleland to agree on a Memorial Day that will be chosen by all our people for future yearly Commemorative Events.
4. We commit to the Collective Memorization of the Genocide by the people of Matebeleland in public spaces in Matebeleland and in other parts of the World in honour of the dead and surviving victims of the Genocide.
5. We commit to campaign against planned burial site exhumations of the victims of Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide without an Independent assembled team of Forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to investigate and gather evidence of this crime against humanity.
6. We commit on calling on the international community, through the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to support the people of Matebeleland to attain Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing and this support will speak to the United Nations' Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide adopted 71 years ago.
7. We profoundly commit ourselves to use Commemorative Memorial Days to campaign for the UNHRC to establish an independent and competent Matebeleland International Commission of Inquiry into the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide for the purposes of establishing Truth and achieving Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland.
8. We pledge our fervent or deep-seated and principled commitment to campaign for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland people and all who have suffered from the evils of genocide in other parts of the world.
9. We strongly affirm the Rights of the people of Matebeleland to be free from tribalism, racism, discrimination, prejudice, mass displacement from their lands, cultural imperialism, educational and economic genocide in Zimbabwe.
10. We condemn the evils of tribalism, racism, discrimination, property rights violations, prejudice, mass land displacements, cultural imperialism, educational and economic genocide faced by people of Matebeleland and others.
11. We commit to equip our generation and generations to come with education/studies and research about the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide and genocides in other parts of the World so as to understand causes and consequences of genocides around the World in order to prevent them.
12. We invite individuals, diverse traditional leadership, diverse organizations, the media, various institutions, various faith-based groups, diverse human rights organizations, political organizations and their leaderships in Matebeleland and in all parts of the civilized World to join us in our unshakable commitment to achieve Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for the people of Matebeleland and for all those people who have suffered the brunt of killings and displacements in Zimbabwe for being who they are.
Who Are We?
We are an 1893 Matebeleland Human Rights Restoration Movement (1983 MHRRM) that represents a proud Nation made up of amalgamated tribes and races that have co-existed diversely and peacefully with each other for years.
We are an inclusive Human Rights Movement whose ultimate purpose is to restore the collective social, economic, educational, cultural, language and territorial rights of the people of Matebeleland as well as hold accountable, those that are responsible for the destruction of this Nation using Genocide as a weapon of conquer and supremacy in Zimbabwe. We are not a political party.
Registration
The registered name of this Movement is 1893 Matebeleland Human Rights Restoration Movement. The brand name of the Movement is the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement. The acronym of the Movement is 1893 MHRRM. The Movement was established on the 13th November 2016 by umthwakazireview.com membership based in the UK, South Africa, Botswana, Matebeleland and Canada.
For more details about the planned events please contact the following:
United Kingdom: Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Secretary for Information and Publicity
Email: 1893informationpublicitysecs@gmail.com
Tel:+44 (0) 7889 422 695
Republic of South Africa: Mr Jabulani Sikhosana, Chairman, RSA Student Wing,
Email: Studentwing1893@gmail.com
Tel: 27 715 133 360
Released by 1893 MHRRM Information and Publicity Department, April 2019
For those not in the know, Gukurahundi is a word from the ethnic Shona language in Zimbabwe that means the early rains which washes away the chaff before the spring rains. The Shona Nationalists gave this Genocide the name Gukurahundi and trained a specific Brigade, assisted by North Koreans, called the Gukurahundi 5th Brigade of Zimbabwe. This brigade was equated to the early rains that wash away the chaff before the spring rains and the Matebeleland people were equated to the chaff that needed to be washed away before the creation of a monolithic Shona super-state of Zimbabwe. The brigade was responsible for carrying out the genocide in Matebeleland in the 80s.
South Africa and UK Memorial Commemorative Events
For the time being, planned MGGDs will take place in South Africa at the end of May with a March and then a Matebeleland Genocide Memorial and Self Determination Football Cup Competition. In the UK the MGGD will be on the 29th June 2019 at:
St Martin's Church Centre, 33 Parkstone Road, Desford, LE9 9HY, Leicestershire
Time 12:00 noon to 18:00 pm.
MGG Awareness Day
As a prelude to the MGGD in the UK, the Movement will be carrying out a Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide Awareness Day at the South Bank University, London, on the 10th May 2019 from 10:00 am until 16:00 pm. This will focus on creating awareness of this genocide with university students and sharing our Statement of Commitment as well as inviting them to support the 29th June 2019 MGGD in Leicestershire.
The Memorial Days will be used as a campaign platform for the establishment of an independent and competent UN assembled Matebeleland International Commission of Inquiry into the Genocide for the purposes of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland people in Zimbabwe.
The MGGDs will also be a focal point to bring together traditional leadership, various human rights organizations, various faith-based organizations and various political organizations and their leadership alongside the survivors of the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide.
The Commemorative Memorial Day Events will feature personal testimonies from survivors of the Genocide, films, poetry and music. It will also feature shared testimonies from other surviving genocide victims of other Nations of the world.
Our Declaration Statement of Commitment
1. We painfully recognize that the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide was the first Genocide of its kind in post-colonial Southern Africa and that it must be universally condemned by the international community.
2. We value all those who made sacrifices to expose the Genocide to the world and all those who sacrificed their lives to protect Matebeleland people from the evils of Gukurahundism or those who have given sanctuary to the people of Matebeleland around the world.
3. We commit to working with all stakeholders in Matebeleland to agree on a Memorial Day that will be chosen by all our people for future yearly Commemorative Events.
4. We commit to the Collective Memorization of the Genocide by the people of Matebeleland in public spaces in Matebeleland and in other parts of the World in honour of the dead and surviving victims of the Genocide.
5. We commit to campaign against planned burial site exhumations of the victims of Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide without an Independent assembled team of Forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to investigate and gather evidence of this crime against humanity.
6. We commit on calling on the international community, through the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to support the people of Matebeleland to attain Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing and this support will speak to the United Nations' Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide adopted 71 years ago.
7. We profoundly commit ourselves to use Commemorative Memorial Days to campaign for the UNHRC to establish an independent and competent Matebeleland International Commission of Inquiry into the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide for the purposes of establishing Truth and achieving Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland.
8. We pledge our fervent or deep-seated and principled commitment to campaign for Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for Matebeleland people and all who have suffered from the evils of genocide in other parts of the world.
9. We strongly affirm the Rights of the people of Matebeleland to be free from tribalism, racism, discrimination, prejudice, mass displacement from their lands, cultural imperialism, educational and economic genocide in Zimbabwe.
10. We condemn the evils of tribalism, racism, discrimination, property rights violations, prejudice, mass land displacements, cultural imperialism, educational and economic genocide faced by people of Matebeleland and others.
11. We commit to equip our generation and generations to come with education/studies and research about the Matebeleland Gukurahundi Genocide and genocides in other parts of the World so as to understand causes and consequences of genocides around the World in order to prevent them.
12. We invite individuals, diverse traditional leadership, diverse organizations, the media, various institutions, various faith-based groups, diverse human rights organizations, political organizations and their leaderships in Matebeleland and in all parts of the civilized World to join us in our unshakable commitment to achieve Truth, Justice, Reparations and Healing for the people of Matebeleland and for all those people who have suffered the brunt of killings and displacements in Zimbabwe for being who they are.
Who Are We?
We are an 1893 Matebeleland Human Rights Restoration Movement (1983 MHRRM) that represents a proud Nation made up of amalgamated tribes and races that have co-existed diversely and peacefully with each other for years.
We are an inclusive Human Rights Movement whose ultimate purpose is to restore the collective social, economic, educational, cultural, language and territorial rights of the people of Matebeleland as well as hold accountable, those that are responsible for the destruction of this Nation using Genocide as a weapon of conquer and supremacy in Zimbabwe. We are not a political party.
Registration
The registered name of this Movement is 1893 Matebeleland Human Rights Restoration Movement. The brand name of the Movement is the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement. The acronym of the Movement is 1893 MHRRM. The Movement was established on the 13th November 2016 by umthwakazireview.com membership based in the UK, South Africa, Botswana, Matebeleland and Canada.
For more details about the planned events please contact the following:
United Kingdom: Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Secretary for Information and Publicity
Email: 1893informationpublicitysecs@gmail.com
Tel:+44 (0) 7889 422 695
Republic of South Africa: Mr Jabulani Sikhosana, Chairman, RSA Student Wing,
Email: Studentwing1893@gmail.com
Tel: 27 715 133 360
Released by 1893 MHRRM Information and Publicity Department, April 2019
Source - 1893 MHRRM
