Zanu-PF is blocking 'all efforts' to rebury Gukurahundi victims: Mzila-Ndlovu

Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, the National healing minister says human remains discovered at a mass graves in Lupane, Matabeleland North province last week will remain exposed because Zanu PF is blocking "all efforts" by his ministry to rebury victims of the 1980s military massacres.

A mass grave believed to contain the remains of up to 60 victims of the 1980s Gukurahundi killings was discovered in a football ground at St Paul's Secondary School in Lupane a week ago. Pupils playing football stumbled on human bones sticking out of the ground.

Speaking to journalists in Bulawayo on Friday, Mzila-Ndlovu who was once arrested in April this year for holding Gukurahundi memorial meetings in the same Lupane district, said the bones would remain in the open because Zanu PF is blocking efforts for reburials.

Mzila Ndlovu was speaking at the Ideas Festival, an event organised by Bulawayo Agenda.

"There is nothing we can do regarding reburials of these human bones which were found in Lupane because Zanu PF is blocking all efforts we are making as a ministry, saying that Gukurahundi is a closed chapter which should not be talked about," said Mzila Ndlovu.

Mzila- Ndlovu added: "Zanu PF was making a mistake by trying to sweep the Gukurahundi issue under the carpet because many people are still angry about the massacres and want the issue discussed in public and also want compensation."

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Executive Director Irene Petras said the failure to deal with past injustices would haunt the country for a long time.

"Zanu PF is not ready to deal with the past and it's trying to block the history of the country and trying to pretend these violations never happened," said Petras.

President Robert Mugabe has refused to apologise for the killings although the Zimbabwean leader has called the crackdown a "moment of madness."

In 1982, Mugabe's Zanu (PF) in pursuit of a one party state sought help from North Korea to train the infamous Five Brigade unit, which was disbanded after killing almost 20 000 people, including children and pregnant women, according to the Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace.

The brigade was deployed in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions in an operation code named Gukurahundi.

For about five years, the Five Brigade massacred innocent civilians using the propaganda excuse that there had been insurgency in the Zapu strongholds.

Some of the people civilians butchered during this period were buried in mass graves while some were thrown in disused mines.

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