‘Gukurahundi--Zimbabweans ready to testify against perpetrators’

From Themba Nkosi in Bulawayo
15 December, 2005

Human rights activists and genocide survivors around the world have hailed the continued arrest of war criminals who had been in hiding in other countries. The net is also closing in on other war criminals such as army generals and politicians who gave orders for the massacres in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia just to mention a few.

The killers and those who gave the orders for the massacres of innocent people are discovering that the world is too small for them to hide forever. Thanks to the international police organisation, Interpol, which has been helping the International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands to bring the war criminals to justice.

The latest arrest by Interpol involved one of the most notorious war criminals, General Onte Gotonica of Croatia. Gotoniva was arrested while having dinner at a restaurant in Spain last week. Here at home in Zimbabwe, thousands of survivors of the massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces are still waiting for justice.

The families and relatives of those who perished during Robert Mugabe’s own ethnic cleansing in Matabeleland have called for the arrest of the 5th Brigade commanders and ruling Zanu (PF) political leaders who gave the orders for the slaughter of more than 20 000 ZAPU supporters.

The massacres took place between 1983 and 1985 in the Zapu strongholds of Matabeleland and Midlands. Zapu, led by the late Joshua Nkomo, was the official opposition in the 80s. SW Radio Africa spoke to some former members of the killer brigade after giving them assurances that they would not be identified.

During separate interviews recently, the former soldiers told SWRADIO that the killing of Zapu supporters was political and had nothing to do with villagers supporting dissident guerrillas and former Zipra cadres. They said they would be willing to give evidence before a commission of inquiry if given security assurances.

‘The killings still haunt me. Others died after suffering from mysterious diseases related to witchcraft’, said one of the former Five Brigade members. He is now running his own business in Bulawayo. His neighbours where he lives at Emakhandeni don’t know he was a member of the killer brigade.

‘The day people find out I was in the Five Brigade, they will kill me’, said the former soldier who wanted us to call him Francis. According to Francis, the killings of the villagers in Matabeleland were ordered by senior government officials, ruling party leaders and army commanders. They also planned the operations with the help of the state security committee, which was allegedly chaired by the late Ernest Kadungure.

The day the decision was made to deploy the 5th Brigade, there were serious disagreements over the strategy. According to another former soldier, the operation against Zapu was planned in Mozambique just before independence. The Zanu (PF) leaders code-named it operation Iron Fist and its intention was to crush Zapu once and for all and pacify Matabeleland Chinese-style.

SWRADIOAFRICA also spoke to Gideon, now based In Masvingo. He is currently a security consultant with a security firm. During an interview at his house he says that he regrets having been a member of the 5th Brigade.

‘When some of us were drafted into the Five Brigade, we were not told the truth about what we were going to do’, said Gideon. He is now 47 and is married with three children. Gideon is now a born again Christian and said that after he gave his life to God, he returned to Matabeleland where he operated, and adopted two children who were orphaned after their parents were shot dead by the brigade in Tsholotsho’s Phelindaba village.

‘I decided to adopt these two kids to show the world that I regret what I did in Matabeleland. I killed innocent people who had nothing to do with dissidents, said Gideon. At Phelindaba village, his battalion slaughtered 23 villagers some of whom were put in one hut and executed.

The Roman Catholic Church documented some of the killings in that area.
‘I really regret what I did as a member of the brigade but as soldiers we were following orders’, said Gideon. He said he paid the school fees for the two children he adopted in Tsholotsho four years ago.

‘I know many children in Matabeleland are disadvantaged and I would like to help if I can’, adds Gideon. He asked that we go go and see his church pastor. The pastor said that Gideon had confessed to him the killings of innocent people in Matabeleland. ‘God has forgiven him’, says the Pastor who asked not to be named for fear of getting into trouble with security agents.

The relatives of the two children adopted by Gideon in Tsholotsho also asked us not to identify them. Fear still rules among the people in Zimbabwe. In the late 90s, former Defence minister Enos Nkala told a meeting organised by Imbovane pressure group in Bulawayo that he would be prepared to give evidence before a commission of inquiry about the Matabeleland genocide.

Nkala confirmed what a former member of the brigade said about those who ordered the massacres. According to Nkala, the killings were ordered by the security committee which involved people like Emmerson Mnangagwa, Perrence Shiri, Mugabe, Kadungure and top army commanders.

Nkala denies he was involved in the Five Brigade operations although in the eyes of the people in Matabeleland, he stands accused of having a hand in the slaughter of civilians. When he was minister of Home Affairs, Nkala told Zimbabweans that he would finish Zapu within a few weeks.

That never happened and Mugabe removed him and gave him the Ministry of Defence where he again threatened to wipe out Mozambican Renamo rebels who were fighting Zimbabwean troops in that country in the ‘80s.

The Matabeleland victims say they are being denied justice by the government, which has protected the killers. In 1986, the police arrested six members of the Five Brigade for the murder of army officer Eddius Ndlovu at a road block in Lupane in 1983. Ndlovu was a former Zipra army officer and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant after independence.

He was stopped at a roadblock by the brigade soldiers and asked to identify himself, which he did. However the soldiers went on to shoot him despite the fact that he was wearing an army uniform. The soldiers who killed him were arrested, tried in Bulawayo High Court and sentenced to death. A few months later, they were pardoned by Mugabe.

Ndlovu’s relatives are still waiting for justice.