Gukurahundi
Gukurahundi is a standing expression in Shona , the most widely spoken indigenous language in Zimbabwe , which translates as "the early rain washes the chaff away before the spring rain". The chaff ("hundi") remains after the threshed grain has been collected ("kupura mhunga kana rukweza"). It's a rural proverb , so to speak .
In present-day Zimbabwe, the expression “Gukurahundi” is a cynical euphemism for the murders of Robert Mugabe's Fifth Brigade in the Ndebele provinces of North and South Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s, which killed at least 10,000 people, mostly Ndebele. Many bodies have not been found to this day.
history
In October 1980, Robert Mugabe, as Prime Minister, signed an agreement with North Korean President Kim Il-sung to train a brigade for the Zimbabwean Army . It did so shortly after Mugabe announced the need for a "fight against discontent" militia.
In August 1981, 106 North Koreans arrived to train the new brigade which Mugabe deemed essential to "deal with dissidents and other concerns in the country." Joshua Nkomo , leader of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which is largely supported by Ndebele , asked why this brigade was needed, when the country had enough police forces to deal with internal problems. He suspected that Mugabe would use this brigade to enforce a one-party state. Mugabe responded by warning the dissidents with a "watch out" and also announced that this brigade would be called "Gukurahundi".
After independence, there were considerable problems integrating the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) militias into a national army. These problems arose not only in Matabeleland, but everywhere in the country. For example, ex-ZANLA members attacked civil areas in Mutuko , Mount Darwin and Gutu . It appeared that both sides had hidden their weapons. In November 1980, at a meeting in Bulawayo, Enos Nkala made a remark warning the ZAPU that a stronger wind could be expected from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). This triggered the first Entumbane survey, in which ZIPRA and ZANLA fought against each other for two days.
In February 1981 the second survey took place, which extended to Glenville and Connemara in the Midlands. ZIPRA units from other parts of Matabeleland came to Bulawayo to take part in the battle, and ex-Rhodesian troops came to end the fighting, which had cost over 300 lives.
The government asked Enoch Dumbutshena , the former chief judge of Zimbabwe, to investigate the investigation. To date, neither results nor a report have been published.
Many ZIPRA cadres went underground after the survey because they no longer believed they were safe in the army after some of their colleagues had mysteriously disappeared. They were also annoyed that ZANLA cadres were given preferential treatment for promotion. It was this fact, rather than any political cause, that caused them to leave the army with their weapons.
The situation worsened after weapons were found in February 1982. The ZANU-PF now openly accused the ZAPU of wanting to start a new civil war, and some ZAPU leaders were dismissed from the cabinet. But the tribunal failed in 1982 to convict Dumiso Dabengwa , Lookout Masuku and four others. All were released, although Dabengwa and Masuku were detained again and spent four years in prison without trial. Thousands of ex-ZIPRA cadres then deserted from the army. Most of them claim to this day that this was essential in order to survive. They fled into exile with their leaders. They were convinced that no one within the army would protect them. "We were threatened, so we decided to desert," said one dissident.
The members of the Fifth Brigade were drawn from the 3,500 former ZANLA fighters at the Tongogara meeting place, named after Josiah Tongogara, a general of ZANLA, the militant wing of Mugabe's ZANU during the Revolutionary War. At first there were a few ZIPRA (ZAPU) troops in the unit, but they were withdrawn before the end of the training. It appears that there were also some foreigners in the force, possibly Tanzanians . The Fifth Brigade's training lasted until September 1982, when Minister Sekeramayi announced that the training was over.
The first commander of the Fifth Brigade was Colonel Perence Shiri . This brigade was different from all other units in the army, in which it was not integrated. It was only responsible to the Prime Minister and was outside the command structure of the regular armed forces. Their codes, uniforms, radios, and equipment were incompatible with those of the Army. What distinguished the Fifth Brigade most from all other soldiers was their red beret, although some reports state that in some cases Fifth Brigade soldiers operated in civilian clothing. The Fifth Brigade appears to have been law to itself once in the field. Most of their actions were directed against defenseless civilians whom Mugabe suspected of assisting the dissidents. In April 1983 Mugabe announced: “We will exterminate them. We don't make a difference in combat because we can't say who is a dissident and who isn't. "
In a matter of weeks, the Fifth Brigade had murdered over 2,000 civilians, beaten thousands and destroyed hundreds of homes. The consequences for the communities through which they passed were shocking.
Most of the dead had been publicly executed. Often they had to dig their own grave in the presence of their families and fellow citizens. The highest death toll was recorded in the March 5, 1983 massacre on the banks of the Cewale River near Lupane , where 62 young men and women were to be executed. Seven survived with gunshot wounds, 55 died. Another way by the Fifth Brigade to kill larger groups was to lock them in houses and set them on fire so that they burned alive. This happened in Tsholotsho and Lupane. In Antelope Mine there are still many corpses lying in dead tunnels in the mass grave . The militia routinely rounded up dozens or even hundreds of civilians and marched them to a central square, usually by the fountain or school, where they forced them to sing Shona songs praising the ZANU-PF while they were with Hit them with sticks. These round-ups usually ended with public executions . These victims could be ex-ZIPRA members, ZAPU members, but also anyone, because coincidence also struck women.
People who supported this type of Fifth Brigade operation reported that this strategy "brought peace very, very quickly" (Lt. Col. Lionel Dyke, Paratrooper Commander, 1983-84). In fact, the Fifth Brigade made the situation worse, in every way. In the end, it wasn't the Fifth Brigade that brought the end of the violence, but a political agreement, the Unity Accord .
On December 22, 1987, Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo signed this contract. This effectively dissolved the ZAPU and the ZANU-PF was formed. On April 18, 1988, Mugabe announced an amnesty for all dissidents and Nkomo called on them to lay down their arms. A decree guaranteed full discharge to anyone who submitted before May 31. This was applied not only to dissidents, but also to criminals of all kinds in prisons. In the weeks that followed, 122 dissidents submitted.
In June this amnesty was extended to all members of the security forces who had violated human rights.
The 1980s riots were over. This gave the entire nation a sigh of relief, but left behind many problems in parts of the country that are still unsolved to this day. This concerns poor health, poverty, practical and legal problems and a deep distrust of the government and its authorities.
literature
- The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe & The Legal Resources Foundation: Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace. A report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980-1989, Summary Report . Digitized on the website of the Human Rights Forum for Zimbabwe, PDF file, 307 kB (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Thilo Thielke: Zimbabwe's dark secret . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 27, 2017, p. 3.