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Max
Mkandla, 52: "I sacrificed a lot to free this country, but
my heart bleeds today"
IRIN News
April 18, 2007
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=71667
BULWAYO - Wednesday
marks 27 years of Zimbabwe's independence. Max Mkandla is a former
freedom fighter and leader of the Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative,
an organisation representing the interests of liberation fighters,
mainly in southern Zimbabwe. He served as a Section Commander under
the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) during the country's
protracted war against colonial rule. Mkandla told IRIN he felt
the government had betrayed the cause of the struggle.
"The independence
that the nation will observe this week is in vain. Simply speaking,
there is no independence to talk about because the government has
turned its sword on the same people that fought gallantly to liberate
this country.
"Opposition
activists have been brutalised, tortured and killed; and those who
advocate for freedom and human rights are in danger of this regime.
I, for one, served as a commander under ZIPRA, which was a military
wing of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), which was led
by the late Joshua Nkomo.
"I sacrificed
a lot to free this country, but my heart bleeds today when I see
oppression and brutal torture of [opposition.]
"When I
fought in the bush, indeed, all those who stood up and contributed
in different ways towards freeing this country, we wanted our freedoms
to be guaranteed; we wanted a right to vote, regardless of who you
are and, most importantly, we wanted to live as freely as any other
democratic and independent nation but, sadly ... our aspirations
[have been blighted].
"They have
brutalised, tortured, killed and maimed opponents and civilians
since the Gukurahundi war, and they have destroyed the economy,
ushering in an unprecedented poverty never seen before."
Gukurahundi,
meaning 'the first rains of the season, which wash away all the
chaff' in the Shona language, was a brigade sent to the southern
provinces of Midlands and Matabeleland to curb dissent, two years
after Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. It killed
20,000 people.
"There
is no independence to talk about. Government and ZANU-PF, and indeed
President [Robert] Mugabe, should be ashamed of themselves."
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