Gukurahundi hearings: Where from and possible outcomes

IT’S 42 years now since a dark cloud of Gukurahundi engulfed Matabeleland and parts of Midlands provinces, in which the Zanu PF government, then led by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, unleashed  North Korea-trained 5 Brigade soldiers, ostensibly to halt the ex-Zipra dissident menace, yet exterminating innocent civilians, who included women and children   born or unborn.

The phenomenon was not only into killings, but a cocktail of stories of the atrocities are told, such as the raping of women and girls, forcing fathers to sleep with their daughters or daughters-in-law, forcing people to pound their infants in pounding bowls, forcing them to cook their children’s corpses and eat them, even forcing people to bury their loved ones alive.

Many were displaced and some disappeared without trace.

This story is for NewsDay subscribers.