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Waiting for the hard rain of culpability
Sarah Hudleston, Business Day (South Africa)
June 22, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706220240.html

Johannesburg (South Africa) - In the past few weeks, the world has seen former Liberian president Charles Taylor face his jury at a special international tribunal in Sierra Leone. The International Criminal Court is also trying him in The Hague for crimes against humanity, allegedly committed during the 1991-2000 civil war in Liberia. Also hitting the news was the decision by Edinburgh University's senate to strip Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of an honorary degree awarded in 1984, following years of campaigning by politicians and students.

At the same time as pressure was put on the university's senate, South African publisher Jacana Books took the brave step of publishing for international distribution a report originally published 10 years ago by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Legal Resources Foundation. The original title was Breaking the Silence: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands, and it is now republished as Gukurahundi.

This is the name given to the 1980s slaughter of mainly Ndebele at the hands of Zimbabwe's Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, said to have been a pet project of Mugabe's. According to the report, a conservative estimate of 20000 people were killed.

Elinor Sisulu, known for her work with the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, writes in the introduction to the report that Gukurahundi, a Shona word meaning "the first rain that washes away the chaff of the last harvest before the spring rains", once had pleasant connotations. She says the more recent campaign, Operation Murambatsvina, in which the Mugabe government deployed police and army units to destroy the homes and businesses of people around the country, has echoes of Gukurahundi. "Once again

the imagery of cleansing is used. Murambatsvina literally means to remove filth. The poverty-stricken urban masses are described by the police chief, Augustine Chihuri, as a 'crawling mass of maggots bent on destroying the economy'."

Sources close to Mugabe say that, above all, he fears being sent to The Hague to face up to the litany of human rights abuses committed under his rule since 1980. But this is unlikely to happen. Despite recent claims by the Catholic Bishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, that more people die in Zimbabwe each year than died during the entire
20-year-long bush war, the end to Mugabe's rule will most probably be contingent on an attractive exit package, in terms of which he will go into exile and receive an amnesty that will rule out any criminal prosecution.

According to the charge sheet against Taylor, he is allegedly responsible for the deaths of 50000 people. Many would argue that Mugabe is responsible for the deaths of three times that number and should be tried for crimes against humanity. Questions also arise about how to deal with Mugabe's cohorts, some of whom were actively involved in human rights abuses. Air force commander Perence Shiri was once known, during his tenure as commander of the Fifth Brigade, as the "Butcher of Bhalagwe Camp"-- a reference to the brigade's Matabeleland headquarters. Shiri reported only to Mugabe and took orders from only him. What would the International Criminal Court make of Shiri and others? Would he and Mugabe ever get a fair trial?

The meticulously compiled evidence in the republished report is compelling. In Lupane in March 1983, 62 young men and women were killed in a mass shooting on the banks of the Cewale River. As Sisulu points out, unlike the massacre at Sharpeville, when shock waves of condemnation reverberated around the world, the silence that surrounded the Lupane and other killings was deafening. Just two of many eyewitness accounts are detailed in the report and they should, by rights, present a strong case for justice.

It is debatable whether it is in Zimbabwe's interests to let Mugabe get off scot-free in the event of a negotiated settlement that would lead to free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. Talks kicked off this week in Pretoria between the ruling Zanu (PF) and both factions of its main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. It will take time for the fruits of these first and faltering negotiations to become known. Sources say that an amnesty from prosecution for Mugabe may be offered, although he will never be free from the threat of prosecution in individual civil cases. The evidence is stacked against him. But there has to be some sort of accountability, and there can be no forgiveness for past atrocities without contrition. And judging by his attitude since the Gukurahundi, Mugabe will never be contrite.

*Hudleston writes for Business Day's sister newspaper, The Weekender

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