‘Butcher Site’: The Rhodesians’ human abattoir
A CHILLING atmosphere always hangs over the Makoni District Heroes Acre in Rusape, Manicaland province.
It is here where lives of hundreds of liberation fighters, war collaborators and civilians came to a brutal end in unfathomable circumstances between 1976 and 1980.
What now remains at the place, commonly referred to as the “Butcher Site”, are concrete slabs, blair toilets and huge trenches, which stand as silent witnesses to the brutality of the Rhodesian security forces. The methods that were used to kill those unfortunate to be condemned were nothing short of sadistic and evil.
“Victims were hanged by the chin using butcher hooks whilst their bodies were raised as shooting targets,” said Cde Morrison Ndlovu, a war veteran who served in Rusape as a soldier after independence.
He is now a caretaker at the site. “This area used to be a farm. As a soldier during the 1990s, I worked in Nyanga and Rusape. What we discovered here was surreal. There were mass graves with hundreds of human remains. Evidence showed that some of the remains had been immersed in an acid-like chemical so that they would never be recognised. Other bodies were burnt.”
Today, eight execution points, where hangman nooses were placed, remain.
The site also had a resident court martial. Some of the victims were executed by firing squad and dumped in unmarked shallow mass graves.
Cruelly, their peers were made to bury them.
“People were killed like animals,” added Cde Ndlovu.
Cde Gift Maramba, a war veteran based in Makoni district, said it is disturbing that black people were shot and killed whilst being used for target practice.
“Shooters needed moving targets, and the makeshift court provided them in a cruel way,” he said.
“Court officials would deceive prisoners, both men and women, into believing they were being released. These ‘freed’ individuals were then forced to run across uneven terrain towards a hill, essentially acting as live targets for soldiers stationed on the other side of the mock court.
“So, even those who did not receive the death sentence could still be killed. The oppressors could even invite their children for target practice. Victims were shackled in leg irons, whilst their faces were covered with masks.”
Cde Maramba said victims came from as far as Mashonaland and several districts in Manicaland such as Mutasa, Nyanga, Zimunya, Marange and Mutare.
National Museums and Monuments (NMMZ) acting director for the Eastern Region, Mr Lloyd Makonya, said the “Butcher Site” contains 21 mass graves.
“The site comprises two open graves, which are remnants of the exhumation exercise conducted almost a decade ago; individual graves with remains interred after the exhumation; a shooting range gallery; the district heroes acre; and the tomb of the unknown soldier,” he said.
“In total, 21 mass graves were dug up at the site, resulting in the uncovering of 113 skeletal remains, while two individual skulls were picked up from nearby kopjes.”
Spirits of victims
Although it is now 44 years since the atrocities were committed, the spirits of those killed seemingly refuse to be forgotten, as some spirit mediums reportedly still visit the site to identify victims.
“The spirit mediums get possessed by the spirits of the dead, who then come to identify themselves. We have had several cases recently, where the spirit mediums have located remains that had not been found. We have reburied some of them here at the district heroes acre.”
Historical value
According to NMMZ, shallow graves that were previously unknown began to be exposed in 1993 due to soil erosion.
Efforts were then made to rehabilitate some of the mass graves.
In 1996, the site was designated a district heroes acre at the behest of war veterans in Makoni district.
“The site carries immense historical value as it is one of the many discovered and undiscovered mass grave sites in Zimbabwe. The site serves to partly explain the fate of some of the people who went missing during the liberation war,” Mr Makonya said.
“As we celebrate the 44th independence of Zimbabwe, sites like these help us remember and honour the selflessness of freedom fighters and the immense suffering they went through, which galvanised them to end colonial rule, showing the futility of the atrocious Rhodesian regime tactics.”
Some years ago, the opposition-led Rusape Town Council allocated residential stands around the area.
The NMMZ and war veterans in Makoni district have, however, since made an undertaking to preserve the site.