Human Rights Commission should deal with Gukurahundi atrocities

by Staff Reporter

2012 July 10 14:09:07 | 1561 Views

Newly formed Matabeleland Civil Society Organisations Forum (MCSF) have called for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) to be mandated to deal the Gukurahundi massacres which claimed the lives of an estimated 20 000 people.

MCSF spokesperson Dumisani Nkomo said they were against proposals to limit the commission's mandate to violations that occurred from 2009 onwards.

Although the ZHRC was constituted two years ago, the legislation to enable its operation has reached its second reading stage in Parliament.

"When the issue of cut-off point was first discussed there was outrage from civil society groups in Matabeleland," said Nkomo in an interview.

"That position has not changed. We didn't think that the period where 20 000 people were killed could be ignored."

Nkomo said Matabeleland's "narrative" about post-independence human rights violations would be "incomplete" without tackling the issue of Gukurahundi.

"If we had some quasi-judicial body like the truth and reconciliation commission, then we would accept the cut-off points of the Human Rights Commission in terms of timeframe, but in the absence of such a body we cannot leave it to chance," he said.

"That would be naive. That is why we want the Human Rights Commission in the absence of the truth and reconciliation type of body to deal with the Gukurahundi violations some of which are continuing. For instance, we have people who do not have birth certificates because of Gukurahundi."

Nkomo said there was a legal argument that ZHRC should not tackle issues in retrospect but it would not be wise to let "such human rights violations go unpunished".

"It's 20 000 people who died, they can't be forgotten just like that," he said.

"How come someone can be arrested for killing a python (which is a protected species in Zimbabwe) or killing a rhino for its horn?

"We are not talking about animals here. We are talking about human lives. "

Gukurahundi Atrocities

Source: newsday