Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe: Where honouring the dead is a criminal offence
10 Apr 2014 at 08:16hrs | Views
Durban - This week thousands of Rwandans filled Kigali stadium to capacity to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that left 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.
The ceremony, attended by foreign heads of state, diplomats and United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon brought back bitter memories of the 100 day killing spree by Hutu government soldiers, civil servants, students, priests and the cannibalistic Interahmwe militia- the most brutal of all the killers.
Simply put-the Interahamwe was the Hutu Power's killing machine. The militia's unorthodox and brutal methods of killing left Pol Pot's Kahmer Rouge in Cambodia looking like amateurs in genocide.
The killing spree, masterminded by Hutu Power leaders and government ministers ended only after Tutsi rebel forces of the Rwanda Patriotic Army(RPA) fought their way into Kigali and defeated the killers forcing thousands of them to flee into exile.
The killers sought refuge in different countries in Africa, Europe,Us and Canada.As I watched a video clip sent to me by a friend at the ceremony, some women, relatives of the dead, screamed hysterically as they were overcome by emotions and flashbacks of the slaughter campaign.
It was at the same stadium where hundreds of Tutsis tried to seek refuge before the killers followed them.This reminded me how soldiers of Zimbabwe's Fifth Brigade followed wounded civillians and demobilised former Zipra combatants into hospital and clinic wards in Matabeleland in the 80s to finish them off.
Listening to testimonies of survivors of the Rwandan genocide can leave you with terrible nightmares.This is a country where, during the killings,Hutu mothers gave orders to their sons to rape, torture and kill Tutsi girls and women.
The Hutu mothers, according to one survivor cheered their sons as they raped and later killed young Tutsi girls, students and workmates.Catholic priests, nuns and pastors from pentecostal churches exchanged their Holy Bibles for machetes and joined the killers of Tutsis.
Civil servants were given time off to go and do the job properly and return to work only when there were no more Tutsis left in Rwanda.To some, this might sound like fiction but thats what happened in Rwanda.
As I continued watching the video, my heart bled with bitterness.I was bitter and angry not at what I was seeing on my TV screen but at my own government.In my country Zimbabwe, it is a crime for genocide survivors to hold cereminies to honour those who perished at the hands of the government's notorious Fifth Brigade troops.
In Rwanda at least survivors can share their horror stories freely without fear of being arrested.They can hold ceremonies to remember those who perished during the genocide and even rebury the remains of some with dignity.
The Zimbabwe killings by the Fifth Brigade, described by President Robert Mugabe as a "moment of madness" left an estimated 20 000 civillians dead.The killers-the Fifth Brigade were a separate army unit created specifically to crush the then opposition Zapu party and its supporters-the Ndebele, Kalanga, Venda, Sothos and Xhosa ethnic groups.
Families of the dead are barred from holding ceremonies to honour them.Leaders of Ibhetshu likaZulu pressure group who have tried to organise such ceremonies in the past have met the full might of the law.Their marches have been banned by the authorities.
Unlike in Rwanda in my country those who masterminded the killings still hold higher positions in government and the military.They are untouchable.In Rwanda the killers were defeated and fled to other countries.
The Paul Kagame government has made a promise to the survivors and families of those who died to hunt down the killers wherever they are in exile and bring them to justice.
They have partly succeeded in tracking down some of the Hutu architects of the genocide and with the help of some governments, arrested and extradited them back to Rwanda to face justice.
Thabo Kunene is a Zimbabwean Journalist and broadcaster based in South Africa.
Source - Thabo Kunene
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