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MDC calls for care, sensitivity in exhumations
Movement for Democratic Change
March 24, 2011

Zanu PF's exhumations, currently taking place in the Mt Darwin area, represents a stark betrayal of all Zimbabweans; a serious lack of care and concern; and a harsh display of political insincerity, in that for three decades nothing was done to handle this extremely sensitive issue.

Zimbabwe's liberation war and its aftermath remain deeply etched inside the heart of every citizen. That a single political party would be so brazen to ignore the fate of thousands of our war heroes and heroines; to abandon them - as it turns out -- in known mine shafts and in shallow graves; and to grandstand 32 years afterwards about their remains is as regrettable as it is unfortunate.

The MDC, a party that legitimately mirrors Zimbabwe's national feelings today, welcomes the exhumation, identification and proper documentation of any Zimbabwean whose fate was determined by the liberation struggle - a national project in which we all took part.

For the exercise that is above party and sectional selfishness, a national budget administered by the relevant state institutions, led by the Ministry of Home Affairs, is imperative to cover the necessary costs of tracking down the genealogy and family trees of the victims through forensic science, carbon-dating and indisputable DNA sampling. Such a process would reveal death details and murder methods.

Zimbabweans have endured violence since colonialism and yearn for the day when the truth about the liberation war, Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina, the 2008 atrocities - among others - is brought onto the surface for informed debate and reflection. Without such a concerted, nationally sensitive process, national healing and reconciliation shall be impossible.

The MDC calls on Zanu PF to stop what it is doing and leave it to the nation to work out an appropriate way forward, beyond amateur propaganda antics and political carelessness.

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