CIVIC society organisations and former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army members in Bulawayo gathered at the weekend in commemoration of victims of Mkushi and Freedom Camps bombing in Zambia, by the Ian Smith colonial regime in 1978.
Mkushi, a camp for female Zipra combatants in Zambia, was ambushed and bombed by Rhodesian forces on October 19, 1978, leaving thousands of young women either killed or injured.
The Rhodesian Forces also launched an assault on Freedom Camp in Zambia, at the same time as the Mkushi attack.
The memorial was organised by Ibhetshu LikaZulu in Bulawayo amid concerns that little or no attention was being given to the two tragic incidents, but instead, authorities were giving more attention to the Chimoio Zanla camp bombing in Mozambique in 1977.
Zipra Veterans Trust vice-chairman Fidelis Moyo said it was mostly teenagers who were affected at the camps.
“Most of them were teenagers. So it is very painful that this happened in front of us and saddened us,” he said.
“What makes me sad is that we hear a lot of talk about Chimoio time and again on the radio. The most painful but rarely talked about in Zipra is that when we were in Zambia, we never impregnated each other. There were very few occasions.”
Zipra cadres have repeatedly appealed to the government to declare a national holiday in remembrance of the young men and women massacred by the Rhodesian army in Zambia in the 1970s.
Zipra was the military wing of Zapu, one of the major nationalist political parties during the armed struggle.
Outspoken Zipra war veteran Max Mkandla said this was a sad moment to think about, especially when one sees the government paying ex-Rhodesians disguised as farmers yet they are the same people who bombed these camps.
“Mkushi and Freedom camps must be remembered and treated the same like what happened to Zanla camps in Mozambique,” Mkandla said.
Recently, Zipra War Veterans Association secretary Petros Sibanda called on the government to facilitate reburials for the victims.
“The government should declare memorial dates for such painful days like these, where a lot of girls and boys were bombed in Mkushi and Freedom transit camps. There should be an activity to commemorate such painful events,” Sibanda said.
He also urged the government to facilitate reburials or establish museums so that people can go there and do rituals.