BY SILAS NKALA FORMER Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has taken the issue of Gukurahundi as genocide to 75 countries in an attempt to pressure the international community to intervene and assist the victims.
Over 20 000 people were killed during the Gukurahundi massacre from 1982-87. Ndiweni’s move follows Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi’s remarks in Geneva last Thursday that the Gukurahundi issue has since been resolved.
“On Friday we had a meeting at the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom and we had been officially invited by Her Majesty’s government and the Gukurahundi issue has since been handed as genocide. In our communication with 75 countries worldwide, we have already labelled it as genocide. The voice of the current government to play Gukurahundi down is futile and they are already behind. We are so far ahead,” Ndiweni said.
Mthwakazi Republic Party leader Mqondisi Moyo said it should be made clear that no one, including former President Robert Mugabe was in a position to give amnesty to perpetrators of the genocide.
“Only the victims are in a position to do so, and we will only take that measure if a truly independent commission of inquiry is established, truth is told and the perpetrators are made to answer for their deeds.
“There was no way Mugabe could have declared amnesty for himself and his people. It is nothing less than contempt of us, the people against whom the crimes were committed,” Moyo said.
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Nkayi Community Parliament speaker Nhlanhla Ncube said the government was acting irresponsibly on the issue of Gukurahundi.
Mthwakazi Liberation Front spokesperson Crispen Nyoni said it was up to the victims to decide what should be done about Gukurahundi.
“It is the victims who should decide what to do in order to liberate themselves from a government that shows contempt. We are mocked, put down and rubbished,” Nyoni said.
Ziyambi in his remarks in Geneva said the State was objecting to the use of the term “massacres”, in the Gukurahundi issue rather describing it as a political matter, concluded in 1987 with the signing of the Unity Accord.
- Follow Silas on Twitter @silasnkala