Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Sunday the start of a reconciliation process over abuses committed in the 1980s during the rule of late President Robert Mugabe, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands.
A series of hearings will be held with survivors to pave the way for them to obtain possible compensation, in an attempt to resolve long-standing grievances and tensions.
“Today is a pivotal moment in our history. This is the day we prove that as a nation we are capable of resolving our conflicts as Zimbabweans, no matter how complex or large they are,” Mnangagwa said in Bulawayo, the southern African nation’s second-largest city.
“This initiative is a powerful symbol of our collective will to overcome the divisions that have divided us for so long,” he added.
The so-called “Gukurahundi massacres” took place a few years after Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain under former President Robert Mugabe.
Beginning in 1983, Zimbabwe deployed an elite military unit to counter the insurgency in the western Matabeleland region of Bulawayo, the stronghold of the Ndebele minority.
About 20,000 people were killed over several years, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe.
The operation was called Gukurahundi, a term that, in the Shona language spoken by the majority, means “early rain that removes the straw.”
Some say the operation targeted dissidents loyal to Mugabe’s colleague and rival Joshua Nkomo. Most of the victims were from the Ndebele minority.
Mugabe, who died in 2019, never admitted responsibility for the massacres.
After taking power in 2017, Mnangagwa promised to set up a commission to investigate the massacres.
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