Writing in NewZimbabwe, Blessing-Miles Tendi in his review of ‘Robert Mugabe: What Happened?’ says “we are told at the end of the film that Mugabe’s legacy is one of genocide. And yet there has never been genocide in Zimbabwe. Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina and the March to June 2008 violence all violated human rights, but to label them genocide is to banalise the term into a validation of every kind of victim hood.” <!–more–></p>

Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands (MAGGEMM) condemns, in the strongest terms, the words of Blessing-Miles Tendi which not only are an attempt to revise Zimbabwean history but also now mark him out as a bonafide Gukurahundi denier. Gukurahundi victims in Matabeleland and Midlands have never been in any doubt that the massacres were genocide, a crime against humanity and no amount of revisionist analysis such as that peddled by Tendi and his co-deniers will diminish that fact.

MAGGEMM would also like to remind Blessing-Miles Tendi that in September 2010, an international human rights group, Genocide Watch officially classified Gukurahundi as genocide saying “The Gukurahundi meets the definition of genocide because it was carried out by the North Korean-trained, exclusively Shona Fifth Brigade under President Mugabe and it targeted ethnic Matabele people.”  We welcomed this classification by Genocide Watch as a helpful step in our battle to see redress for Gukurahundi and indeed all victims of post-independence human rights abuses.

Gukurahundi remains unrecognised in Zimbabwe today and the Government of National Unity (GNU) is yet to officially acknowledge the massacres and faciltate a true process of healing.  Instead and in a case of putting the cart before the horse, GNU set up the toothless National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration ministry without first acknowledging Gukurahundi.

MAGGEMM repeats its call for the official acknowledgement of Gukurahundi followed by a Truth Justice and Healing Commission (TJHC) to be convened as soon as possible.  We make this call from an independent, non-affiliated vantage point which gives us the scope to monitor those representative groups and individuals like Blessing-Miles Tendi who want to revise history and deny the Gukurahundi genocide.

AYIPHELI, NGEKIPHELE  LENDABA (until Truth & Justice are served)!

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 or visit www.maggemm.co.uk

THE gross violation of human rights in Zimbabwe merit the prosecution of Robert Mugabe and his cronies.  After clinging to power for nearly three decades, Mugabe has made sure that he wholly paralyses the economy of a country once regarded as the bread-basket, the beacon of hope in southern Africa.

The Gukurahundi genocide remains the biggest human rights violations by any sitting President in the SADC region today yet no one, even in the then Front Line States let alone the rest of the world, raised their voice in protest. I however square the blame for this silence on the then Zapu Central Committee led by the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and the Zipra High Command led by Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku.