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NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

AMHVoices: Zanu PF shall be charged for crimes against humanity

AMH Voices
The country is burning and demonstrations have become the order of the day. Zanu PF has failed Zimbabweans and it has no solution to the economic problems people are facing.

The country is burning and demonstrations have become the order of the day. Zanu PF has failed Zimbabweans and it has no solution to the economic problems people are facing.

By Tendai Mazenge,Our Reader

They have resorted to their old ways of intimidation, torture and police brutality. University graduates were denied clearance by the police to hold a peaceful demonstration. So they decided to join Transform Zimbabwe, who were allowed to stage a demonstration against the introduction of bond notes and because of that police started to beat up protesters.

I would like to talk about the police and military who are being sent by their bosses to brutalise the masses in the name of maintaining law and order. Military law has long since recognised that following orders is a legitimate defence, but not if an order was illegal or if a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known it was illegal.

The worst mass murderers of recent times have gone unpunished and the guilty walk among us. What shall we do? In Zimbabwe the perpetrators are never pursued because they are protected by the evil regime called Zanu PF.

As a condition of stepping down some rulers were granted immunity from prosecution and in Zimbabwe the question of pardon for President Robert Mugabe is said to have scuppered talks between Zanu PF and MDC.

I am strongly against that. Many opposition members have been tortured and some murdered by Zanu PF thugs and war veterans, but what about the life they have lost, the pain, need to flee their homes. Does all that have a price? And if so, who should pay? I want justice to prevail Some people want to push for war crimes trials and others want a South African style of Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a minority hold equally valid view that a new government needs to draw a line and move on because dragging up the past will only hold back the future and delay the healing that is so vital to national progress. But the circle is of one mind.

They all want justice and would be willing to aid the process by testifying against their tormentors. A frightening number, especially men are set to take revenge unless and in a few cases, even if the state is willing to act, not just against those who committed the crime but also the officers and ministers and even the President who sanctioned it, or at best, did nothing to stop the Madness.

So, where is the problem? Hold some trials, punish the guilty, free the innocent people or, those whose cases don’t add up and move on. But life is rarely that simple. People don’t easily forget such kind of atrocities. There are many legal, moral and practical issues that need to be considered