Zimbabwe -- Gukurahundi mooted in 1979 - document

Zimbabwe Standard ^ | August 10, 2002 | Grey Moyo

[Clive]

BULAWAYO—The Gukurahundi operation that left an estimated 20 000 civilians killed in Matabeleland in the early 80s was a planned move based on a secret 1979 Grand Plan by the ruling Zanu PF to annihilate Ndebele speaking people who were mainly supporters of PF Zapu, claims a controversial document currently circulating in Matabeleland.

The 14-page document, entitled Progress Review on the 1979 Grand Plan, highlights that Zanu PF created the dissident problem in Matabeleland in order to get a pretext to wipe out PF Zapu, which stood in the way of Zanu PF’s cherished one party state ideology.

The document, which is widely circulating in the region, carries an alert message: “For the eyes of the Shona Elite only, please pass to most trusted person” and purports to have been authored by “The Core” of Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party.

It claims, among many other controversial issues, that the Gukurahundi operation was in fact a deliberate plan by Zanu PF to destroy Ndebeles who formed the bulwark of the support base of Joshua Nkomo’s PF Zapu.

“At independence Zapu posed the most difficult challenge to Zanu PF over the leadership of the country. The threat was not so much in terms of grassroots support as it was in terms of military firepower which Zapu built over the years with Russian and Cuban support...Zipra was strong but inexperienced since they knew no battles of note. Nevertheless, Zipra remained an impediment in our aim to deal conclusively with the issue of Ndebeles and their ugly past and the need to pacify Zapu was never greater than in 1980,” part of the document reads.

The document, which has been dismissed by junior minister for information, Jonathan Moyo, as the work of British intelligence bent on destabilising the country, says that RG (Mugabe) did his homework quietly and brought into the country super military training experts from North Korea.

“Within eight months a feared and uncompromising crack force, known as Gukurahundi, had been trained. This is the force which was to strike terror in the hearts of the Ndebeles while RG consistently dangled the juicy carrot of a government of national unity and the integration of forces into the national army,” noted the document, in apparent reference to the short lived Zapu-Zanu PF government of national unity which ended with the arrest of senior PF Zapu officials in February 1982.

The document also claims that it was Mugabe who created a small rebel force comprising recruits from Zipra, who were then deployed to start disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.

“Soon the self styled dissidents were joined by other genuinely aggrieved Zipras who could not stand the heat generated exclusively for them in the Zimbabwe National Army. However, the army deserters and a few notorious Zipra who hated RG had a cue that the dissident element was not a PF Zapu initiative,” says the document. It adds that the strategy kept the genuine dissidents confused and uncoordinated, “finally resorting to nomadic movement within the region.”

Apart from the Gukurahundi issue, the document also refers to a 4th Chimurenga which will see Shonas asserting their influence over Ndebeles in nearly all the facets of life.

In this struggle, even religious “stones” who are said to be pretending to be self appointed champions of a lost Ndebele cause will “roll”.

Already, notes the document, several farms in Matabeleland have fallen into the hands of new Shona farmers in a move that will begin to “break the spine of the enemy.” Investigations by The Standard over the past few weeks have established neither the author nor the authenticity of the document. However, the document strikes a cord with the findings of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) contained in the report titled Breaking The Silence— Building True Peace.

[Clive]

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