Rights groups want “massacre” report released

Zimbabwe human rights organisations have launched a Supreme court application to force President Robert Mugabe to make public the findings of a commission of inquiry into the deaths of about 8,000 civilians in the western provinces of Matebeleland in the 1980s, the chairman of Zimrights confirmed to IRIN. “The government has not apologised for the actions of the Korean-trained 5th Brigade that randomly killed civilians in Matebeleland,” Nicholas Ndebele told IRIN on Monday. “The country needs to know why these atrocities happened so that a process of reconciliation and reparation can begin.” Ndebele said Zimrights, through the application launched on 17 November, aims to instil a sense of accountability in the government: “The perpetrators of this massacre are well-known, however, they have not owned up to their actions. In fact, some of them occupy top positions in government and the army.” Elizabeth Feltoe, a former legal officer of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe told IRIN that Mugabe made an undertaking to release the Matebeleland report when the Chihambakwe commission of inquiry was established. “The application, therefore, is to compel the president to fulfil this undertaking,” Feltoe told said. She added, however, that there is no guarantee Mugabe would obey the court should it order him to release the report. “The government has ignored court judgements before, and there would be no other recourse if this were to happen.” Both Ndebele and Feltoe agree that it won’t be easy to either start public hearings into the murders in the form of the South African truth commission or effect individual compensation to victims and their families. But, “the perpetrators of these killings should publicly apologise to the victims and their families so that reconciliation can start,” said Ndebele, who added that even residents of Mashonaland don’t know the extent of atrocities committed in Matebeleland by the 5th Brigade. Feltoe said determining individual compensation would be a nightmare. “Infrastructural development for Matebeleland would be a better proposition whereby the schools and roads are established and fixed up as opposed to individual compensation.” According to Ndebele, the application also wants to compel Mugabe to release the findings of an inquiry into the 1982 battles in at least two army camps in which guerrilla groups loyal to Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo engaged in full-scale battles in the western city of Bulawayo. The two guerrilla groups reportedly attacked each other with infantry, artillery and tanks, mostly in urban areas. The inquiry was chaired by former chief justice Enoch Dumbutshena, who handed it to Mugabe but was never released.