Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands (MAGGEMM) has welcomed Zimbabwean author and journalist Geoff Hill’s appointment onto the advisory council of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).

Hill has promised to use his time on the council to campaign for the Gukurahundi massacres to be declared a crime against humanity.

“Gukurahundi victims in Matabeleland and Midlands have never been in any doubt that the massacres were genocide, a crime against humanity,” said Thembani Dube, MAGGEMM Director of Programmes.

“For almost thirty years now, we have been telling the world about Gukurahundi, asking the United Nations and latterly the International Criminal Court (ICC) to officially declare the massacres as genocide.  Geoff Hill’s appointment onto the IAGS advisory council is a welcome step towards the attainment of that goal.”

Gukurahundi remains unrecognised in Zimbabwe today and MAGGEMM has repeatedly called on the new Government of National Unity to seize the moment and break with the past by officially acknowledging the massacres.  MAGGEMM hopes that the IAGS will now examine the Gukurahundi case and see it for what it is – genocide and a crime against humanity.

Notes to Editors:

1. Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands (MAGGEMM) is a not-for-profit group for victims of the Gukurahundi genocide in Zimbabwe between 1982 and 1988.

2. MAGGEMM is not a political party/organisation and its actions must not be viewed as such.

3. Gukurahundi is a Shona word which means “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains” and was the codename for the government military operation in Matabeleland and Midlands between 1982 and 1988.

4. At least 20,000 people were massacred during the Gukurahundi campaign. For more information, please contact Mpho Ncube (ncube@maggemm.co.uk), telephone +44 (0)7776326521.