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Mthwakazi commemorate Gukurahundi in UK

ZimDecides18
Rights pressure group, the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM) will this Saturday launch a campaign for an inquiry by the United Nations into the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

Rights pressure group, the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM) will this Saturday launch a campaign for an inquiry by the United Nations into the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres.

The event, to be held in Leicester, St Martin’s Church Centre in the United Kingdom, will feature personal testimonies from survivors of Gukurahundi and also shared testimonies from other genocide survivors who now reside in other countries.

The 1893 MHRRM said it would also make a “strong call” to government to stop any exhumations and re-burials in the absence of international forensic experts in order to avert the destruction of evidence.

“We commit to the collective memorialisation of the genocide by the people of Matabeleland in public spaces in Matabeleland and in other parts of the world in honour of the dead and surviving victims of the genocide.

“We commit to campaign against planned burial site exhumations of the victims of Matabeleland Gukurahundi genocide without an independently assembled team of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to investigate and gather evidence of this crime against humanity,” the 1893 MHRRM said.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has committed to addressing Gukurahundi by, among others, facilitating exhumations, reburials and issuance of identity particulars to the victims and survivors.

“We profoundly commit ourselves to use commemorative memorial days to campaign for the UNHRC to establish an independent and competent Matabeleland international commission of inquiry into the Matabeleland Gukurahundi genocide for purposes of establishing truth and achieving justice, reparations and healing for Matabeleland,” the 1893 MHRRM added.

In November 2018, Matabeleland chiefs petitioned the United Nations seeking the setting up of an independent inquiry to the Gukurahundi massacres, attracting government anger.