Opinion / Columnist
The early signs of yet another Gugurahundi-genocide and crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe!
30 Mar 2016 at 20:53hrs | Views
It was a mad moment; ironically the former Prime Minister Robert Mugabe admits how the Gugurahundi atrocities could be seen as the mad moment. The present Vice President Mnangagwa denies having likened the people of Matabeleland and Midlands with cockroaches who should be gamatoxed with DDT. VP Mnangagwa was quoted in the Chronicle edition of April 5 telling a rally in Victoria Falls verbatim:
"The campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure which nurtures them is destroyed." Said the whole VP, denies this evidence in black and white and he has the hide to threaten to sue the Senator Coltart for telling the painful truth, the truth. In truth: icala kaliboli, mhosva hayiwori. VP Mnangagwa was one of the perpetrators of genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands, the atrocities he perpetuated together with his criminal cabals: a fulfilment of Grand Plan of 1979. Genocide is mass murder committed by elites, was committed by elites in Zanu PF including Enos Nkala of Ndebele origin, was part of the grand plan of 1979.
The Vice President of Zimbabwe, Mr. Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and his clumsy utterances regarding Gugurahundi and its victims, the advanced age President Robert Gabriel Mugabe give most of the victims of genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands a chill in their spines. There are all early signs of the coming genocide that will be worse than the one of the 1980s. In the 1980s the mechanism of accountability to seek to punish and deter perpetrators of genocide was not in place. Zimbabwe's genocide against the people of Matabeleland and Midlands was not acknowledged as genocide because of the cold war of the 1980s, a dangerous oversight on the part of the international community.
As a result Mugabe and his henchmen went scot free from the most heinous acts of crimes: genocide an aggravated form of crimes against humanity. It targeted the people of Matabeleland and Midlands, of Ndebele speaking and Zapu members even of Shona (only those of Zapu political party) ethnic group in equal measure.
One of the most commonly used false assumptions of genocide is that it is the result of conflict. There were dissidents in Matabeleland, they said. In retrospect genocide was planed long back. There were dissident activities in Matabeleland, their presence minimal in regards to the response to decimate the entire ethnic group. It was a trigger to carry out genocide. Gregory Stanton devised a development model of the stages of genocide: symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, expropriation, rounding up, transportation of victims, extermination and DENIAL. Before the cock craws three decades, VP Emerson Mnangagwa is in total denial.
Symbolization was in the form of code name: Gugurahundi. To be able to eliminate their victims, Zanu PF dehumanized them by calling them cockroaches. They organized the "Fifth Brigade" that was trained to carry the atrocities targeting a tribe Ndebele and those Shona that were Zapu members. Polarization: the people were demarcated mentally, economically, socially and psychologically in ethnic groups: Shona; Ndebele: and the White population. Preparations were the actual training of the "Fifth Brigade" by the North Korean Army. The people were rounded up and got killed, the bodies were collected to be thrown in mine shafts and shallow graves in unknown places. More than 20,000 people of Matabeleland and Midlands were exterminated:
It was genocide in 1983 until 1987. In year 1999 to 2000 crimes against humanist were committed by Zanu PF again under false pretext of farm invasions. Again in 2005 atrocities were committed by the same government of Zanu PF under the false pretext that they were refusing dirt, code named: Murambatsvina. In the general elections of 2008 supporters of MDC were prosecuted some of them killed in most brutal circumstances. With all these crimes committed on its peoples, none was put before the court of law to account for the crimes against humanity they committed. These two terms: genocide and crimes against humanity terms is used in war crimes tribunals: ICC to hold those people or group of elite who perpetrated those crimes to be made accountable before the international court of justice.
It is not enough to recount the events leading to genocide but it is also important to know the motives and deeds, why they could be capable of committing such barbaric crimes. In all crimes committed by Zanu PF, be it genocide of the 1980s or the farm invasions of the Murambatsvina or the violent general elections of 2008, systematic attacks were used to firstly dehumanize them, humiliate them by forcing them to dance songs of praise of their callous horrendous deeds, deception, telling the people that Joshua Nkomo is a traitor, everyone should hold a Zanu PF party card. Richard Morgan Tsvangirai is a western stooge, Ndebeles are cry babies, land reform is a corrective; we want our land back taken from the colonialists!
Genocide and crimes against humanity are crimes committed on the most vulnerable people, racial or ethnics or opposition parties.
Because of the lack of means to bring the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity, perpetrators and victims of genocide and crimes against humanity have lived side by side with long periods of social coexistence. The oppressors in the corridors of power manage to introduce discriminatory measure to further oppress the marginalised: denied social development in their areas, send Shona speaking teachers in primary schools to impede whatever educational development, most schools and clinics in Matabeleland's and Midlands are those left by the Smith's UDI.
Developmental genocide whereby there is a systematic destruction of culture of the oppressed, creating massive dislocation in the lives of the people of Matabeleland and Midlands. There is massive closure of factories in Bulawayo leading to millions unemployment in the regions. The water from the Zambezi River remains a pipe dream to this date. The honourable Dabengwa is constrained right left and centre, cannot finish the water project with scarce resources, the very project that can bring hope to the people Matabeleland and the Metropolitan Town of Kings and Queens: Bulawayo.
The Senator Coltart's book is of vast importance to the people of Zimbabwe because it will be used s one of the diaries that will inform us about our history of violence and how we should use it to heal the nation. The declassified report of Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe in 1997 (CCJP) estimate that it could be more than 30,000 people who perished during 1982 and 1987.
There is evidence on the ground that Zanu and its leader Robert Mugabe were on the urgency to make Zimbabwe a country for only Shona speaking people; it was planned to rid of any other language speaking ethnics groupings in the area. Also it is not surprising that Robert Mugabe and his henchmen since independence have been aggressively implementing in practice the philosophy underpinned in its special publication of 1979 and that this has in fact gone beyond anything experienced anywhere in this world: genocide.
The late Nkala was once reported as having said he wished there was a river that he would use to wash off his being Ndebele and wake up as a Shona speaking person.
The Catholic Report of 1997 and the Senator David Coltart's book: "The struggle continues: 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe will be diaries of inestimable value as they constitute authentic and reliable sources of information of the history of Zimbabwe. Diaries focus on those experiences, issues, concerns, anxieties, fears, hardships the victims personally witnessed and experienced. The newspaper Chronicle too was a very rare on-the-spot contemporaneous account of VP Mnangagwa utterances that he scandalously denies.
A lot of records regarding genocide in Zimbabwe are not documented because some of the population in rural areas where these atrocities took place were peasant citizens with very little or no literacy skills. A lot will depend on their oral narratives. The surviving victims of genocide and crime against humanity from all corners of Zimbabwe should be allowed to come forward and put together repositories of the past dark history of violence Zimbabwe.
If they were warning signs on the ground, the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia would not have taken place, millions of lives would have been saved. It is always this if, if, if, if, in German one would say "Hätte der Hund nicht geschißen, hätte auch der Haufen nicht gegeben!" It was the failure of the international community that lacked foresight, or had no warning signs at place in the events that led to today's genocide. The Holocaust and the genocide of the Ottoman Empire are text book cases that should have told the UN to put together warning signs genocide.
A resolution has been passed in the UN to put institutions in place that will be whistle blowers of genocide before it takes place. According to Gregory Stanton, those eight stages of genocide and crimes against humanity such as: symbolization, dehumanization, organisation, polarization, preparation, expropriation, rounding up, transportation and exterminations should be seen as guidelines that will warn people especially those who have been victims of genocide before, warn them about what is to come and people can take measure to avoid loss of life.
Genocide in Zimbabwe may have been perpetrated on one ethnic group Ndebeles and Zapu members of Shona ethnic, the crimes against humanity has been perpetrated on almost all ethnic groups in Zimbabwe. There is not one single ethnic group in Zimbabwe that does not nurse scars of absolute brutality of barbaric nature. It is the opinion of this author to think that Zimbabwe problem becomes easier to solve as we all know our common enemy that is Zanu PF.
How will VP Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa become a President in Zimbabwe with the history of violence and impunity in his history book? It is not only Ndebele people who fear the day VP Mnangagwa will take over and be the President of Zimbabwe but the majority of the citizens fear this man nicknamed "crocodile" for a very good reason.
"The campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure which nurtures them is destroyed." Said the whole VP, denies this evidence in black and white and he has the hide to threaten to sue the Senator Coltart for telling the painful truth, the truth. In truth: icala kaliboli, mhosva hayiwori. VP Mnangagwa was one of the perpetrators of genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands, the atrocities he perpetuated together with his criminal cabals: a fulfilment of Grand Plan of 1979. Genocide is mass murder committed by elites, was committed by elites in Zanu PF including Enos Nkala of Ndebele origin, was part of the grand plan of 1979.
The Vice President of Zimbabwe, Mr. Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and his clumsy utterances regarding Gugurahundi and its victims, the advanced age President Robert Gabriel Mugabe give most of the victims of genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands a chill in their spines. There are all early signs of the coming genocide that will be worse than the one of the 1980s. In the 1980s the mechanism of accountability to seek to punish and deter perpetrators of genocide was not in place. Zimbabwe's genocide against the people of Matabeleland and Midlands was not acknowledged as genocide because of the cold war of the 1980s, a dangerous oversight on the part of the international community.
As a result Mugabe and his henchmen went scot free from the most heinous acts of crimes: genocide an aggravated form of crimes against humanity. It targeted the people of Matabeleland and Midlands, of Ndebele speaking and Zapu members even of Shona (only those of Zapu political party) ethnic group in equal measure.
One of the most commonly used false assumptions of genocide is that it is the result of conflict. There were dissidents in Matabeleland, they said. In retrospect genocide was planed long back. There were dissident activities in Matabeleland, their presence minimal in regards to the response to decimate the entire ethnic group. It was a trigger to carry out genocide. Gregory Stanton devised a development model of the stages of genocide: symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, expropriation, rounding up, transportation of victims, extermination and DENIAL. Before the cock craws three decades, VP Emerson Mnangagwa is in total denial.
Symbolization was in the form of code name: Gugurahundi. To be able to eliminate their victims, Zanu PF dehumanized them by calling them cockroaches. They organized the "Fifth Brigade" that was trained to carry the atrocities targeting a tribe Ndebele and those Shona that were Zapu members. Polarization: the people were demarcated mentally, economically, socially and psychologically in ethnic groups: Shona; Ndebele: and the White population. Preparations were the actual training of the "Fifth Brigade" by the North Korean Army. The people were rounded up and got killed, the bodies were collected to be thrown in mine shafts and shallow graves in unknown places. More than 20,000 people of Matabeleland and Midlands were exterminated:
It was genocide in 1983 until 1987. In year 1999 to 2000 crimes against humanist were committed by Zanu PF again under false pretext of farm invasions. Again in 2005 atrocities were committed by the same government of Zanu PF under the false pretext that they were refusing dirt, code named: Murambatsvina. In the general elections of 2008 supporters of MDC were prosecuted some of them killed in most brutal circumstances. With all these crimes committed on its peoples, none was put before the court of law to account for the crimes against humanity they committed. These two terms: genocide and crimes against humanity terms is used in war crimes tribunals: ICC to hold those people or group of elite who perpetrated those crimes to be made accountable before the international court of justice.
It is not enough to recount the events leading to genocide but it is also important to know the motives and deeds, why they could be capable of committing such barbaric crimes. In all crimes committed by Zanu PF, be it genocide of the 1980s or the farm invasions of the Murambatsvina or the violent general elections of 2008, systematic attacks were used to firstly dehumanize them, humiliate them by forcing them to dance songs of praise of their callous horrendous deeds, deception, telling the people that Joshua Nkomo is a traitor, everyone should hold a Zanu PF party card. Richard Morgan Tsvangirai is a western stooge, Ndebeles are cry babies, land reform is a corrective; we want our land back taken from the colonialists!
Genocide and crimes against humanity are crimes committed on the most vulnerable people, racial or ethnics or opposition parties.
Because of the lack of means to bring the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity, perpetrators and victims of genocide and crimes against humanity have lived side by side with long periods of social coexistence. The oppressors in the corridors of power manage to introduce discriminatory measure to further oppress the marginalised: denied social development in their areas, send Shona speaking teachers in primary schools to impede whatever educational development, most schools and clinics in Matabeleland's and Midlands are those left by the Smith's UDI.
Developmental genocide whereby there is a systematic destruction of culture of the oppressed, creating massive dislocation in the lives of the people of Matabeleland and Midlands. There is massive closure of factories in Bulawayo leading to millions unemployment in the regions. The water from the Zambezi River remains a pipe dream to this date. The honourable Dabengwa is constrained right left and centre, cannot finish the water project with scarce resources, the very project that can bring hope to the people Matabeleland and the Metropolitan Town of Kings and Queens: Bulawayo.
There is evidence on the ground that Zanu and its leader Robert Mugabe were on the urgency to make Zimbabwe a country for only Shona speaking people; it was planned to rid of any other language speaking ethnics groupings in the area. Also it is not surprising that Robert Mugabe and his henchmen since independence have been aggressively implementing in practice the philosophy underpinned in its special publication of 1979 and that this has in fact gone beyond anything experienced anywhere in this world: genocide.
The late Nkala was once reported as having said he wished there was a river that he would use to wash off his being Ndebele and wake up as a Shona speaking person.
The Catholic Report of 1997 and the Senator David Coltart's book: "The struggle continues: 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe will be diaries of inestimable value as they constitute authentic and reliable sources of information of the history of Zimbabwe. Diaries focus on those experiences, issues, concerns, anxieties, fears, hardships the victims personally witnessed and experienced. The newspaper Chronicle too was a very rare on-the-spot contemporaneous account of VP Mnangagwa utterances that he scandalously denies.
A lot of records regarding genocide in Zimbabwe are not documented because some of the population in rural areas where these atrocities took place were peasant citizens with very little or no literacy skills. A lot will depend on their oral narratives. The surviving victims of genocide and crime against humanity from all corners of Zimbabwe should be allowed to come forward and put together repositories of the past dark history of violence Zimbabwe.
If they were warning signs on the ground, the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia would not have taken place, millions of lives would have been saved. It is always this if, if, if, if, in German one would say "Hätte der Hund nicht geschißen, hätte auch der Haufen nicht gegeben!" It was the failure of the international community that lacked foresight, or had no warning signs at place in the events that led to today's genocide. The Holocaust and the genocide of the Ottoman Empire are text book cases that should have told the UN to put together warning signs genocide.
A resolution has been passed in the UN to put institutions in place that will be whistle blowers of genocide before it takes place. According to Gregory Stanton, those eight stages of genocide and crimes against humanity such as: symbolization, dehumanization, organisation, polarization, preparation, expropriation, rounding up, transportation and exterminations should be seen as guidelines that will warn people especially those who have been victims of genocide before, warn them about what is to come and people can take measure to avoid loss of life.
Genocide in Zimbabwe may have been perpetrated on one ethnic group Ndebeles and Zapu members of Shona ethnic, the crimes against humanity has been perpetrated on almost all ethnic groups in Zimbabwe. There is not one single ethnic group in Zimbabwe that does not nurse scars of absolute brutality of barbaric nature. It is the opinion of this author to think that Zimbabwe problem becomes easier to solve as we all know our common enemy that is Zanu PF.
How will VP Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa become a President in Zimbabwe with the history of violence and impunity in his history book? It is not only Ndebele people who fear the day VP Mnangagwa will take over and be the President of Zimbabwe but the majority of the citizens fear this man nicknamed "crocodile" for a very good reason.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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