Britain should be in Gukurahundi dialogue: Zipra

WAR veterans from the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) have expressed concern over the exclusion of Britain in the Gukurahundi hearings arguing that the former coloniser had a hand in the perpetration of the atrocities.

Zipra spokesperson Buster Magwizi yesterday told Southern Eye that there was need to classify Gukurahundi as genocide and use that as a benchmark for the hearings.

He also called for involvement of an independent body in resolving the Gukurahundi issue.

“Britain must also be involved in the hearings because they are the planners of Gukurahundi. There is need to classify Gukurahundi as a genocide so that the issue can be handled using genocide as a benchmark,” he said.

Some Zipra members expressed scepticism over record keeping saying there was a possibility that the records might disappear after the exercise.

“We fear that the records might disappear just like our Zipra/Zapu records. We are not happy about the move taken by the government to ban the media from attending the hearings. “We will record using our phones during the processes as a safeguard measure because people might get distorted information,” they said.

However, Chief Gwesela of Midlands told Southern Eye that they were not happy about their exclusion from the Gukurahundi hearings.

“The province was affected tremendously, a lot of atrocities happened here, it is within their power to include us or not,” he said.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday last week met traditional leaders at the State House in Bulawayo and expressed government’s commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability in dealing with the Gukurahundi problem.