From: wsargeant@IGC.APC.ORG (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Zimbabwe, huma rights abuse being
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:32:47 GMT

/* Written 12:04 am  Jul 30, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "ZIMBABWE: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE BEING " ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Human Rights
Title: ZIMBABWE: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE BEING EXPOSED /SERIES/


an inter press service feature

by william mpofu

bulawayo, jul 27 (ips) -- as zimbabwe's human rights
organisations intensify educational and awareness campaigns,
people are beginning to open up and talk about gruesome
experiences during the 1980s at the hands of the army's
notorious fifth brigade.

up to now, many villagers in matebeleland in south-western
zimbabwe have kept close to their chests atrocities perpetrated
by the korean-trained brigade in a campaign described as
''genocide'' to eliminate the minority ndebele people.

although no one is prepared to hazard a guess, human rights
activists and rural zimbabweans believe thousands of civilians
were tortured to death or summarily executed.

three human rights organisations -- the zimbabwe human rights
organisation (zimrights), the bulawayo legal projects committee
(blpc) and the catholic commission for justice and peace (ccjp)
-- have expressed concern about the government's refusal to
admit responsibility for the brigade's actions.

the brigade was set in 1982 specifically to deal with the
disgruntled former fighters of the zimbabwe african people's
union (zapu) led by vice-president joshua nkomo. purportedly
created to preserve internal security, it was deployed in
matebeleland in february 1983.

about 300 brigade members defected from the army after
discovery of arms caches on zapu-owned properties, the arrest of
six of their commanders, including the current home affairs
minister dumiso dabengwa, and the sacking of zapu ministers from
the government of national unity formed soon after independence
from britain in april 1980.

zapu and the ruling zimbabwe african national union-patriotic
front (zanu-pf) merged in 1987 to bring peace to this southern
african nation of 10.8 million people.

lawyers filed hundreds of affidavits on behalf of people who
lost relatives through the activities of the brigade and those
who disappeared at the hands of the central intelligence
organisation (cio) to a commission of enquiry. (more/ips)


zimbabwe: human (2)

''soldiers would come to a village and shoot or take away
people never to be seen again'', explains david coltart, a
member of the bulawayo legal projects committee.

the lawyer gave the example of oscar ncube and gibson sibanda
who were picked up by plain-clothes police and have never been
seen again.

''since many people blamed the fifth brigade for the
atrocities, the results of the commission of enquiry have not
been revealed and i do not think the government will do so
because it is too damaging'', he adds.

a government employee, who travels around the province in the
course of his duties, says villagers are now indicating where
mass graves are located in their areas.

the civil servant, who cannot be identified for security
reasons, says so far he knows about mass graves in jotsholo,
nkayi and matobo districts.

''villagers say people were brought from one district to
another, tortured to death and buried in mass graves or just
thrown down old mine shafts'', says the civil servant.

a mine manager at kezi in matobo, some 120 km south of
bulawayo -- zimbabwe's second city -- says his team pulled out
four skulls and 12 femur bones from a shaft they are reopening
to draw water for the purification plant.

''there should be more skeletons in the shaft but we might
never know as we are going down to the bottom'', explains the
miner.

''we knew that we would find some skeletons or bones when we
started working on the old shaft as villagers had warned us'',
he adds.

the skeletons and bones were taken away by the police,
according to local people.

according to the zimrights interim deputy secretary for
political rights, people in matebeleland have always known
the existence of mass graves but were too afraid to reveal
the information.

''they are now determined that the information be known.
people do not want vengeance but the identities of those
killed'', says judith todd. ''the information must come out so
that atrocities committed in the past do not happen again''.
(more/ips)


zimbabwe: human (3)

william chapungu, for instance, is prepared to testify
against government agents responsible for the destruction of
property and disappearance of nine villagers in silobela,
midlands province.

the former teacher, whose left arm was broken at the elbow
and the other paralysed when he was severely beaten by members
of fifth brigade, says villagers are claiming 300,000 u.s.
dollars from the government.

''we are very bitter about what happened and people want
their properties back and the perpetrators brought to book,''
he says. (end/ips/wm/apc/ar/92)

//att editors: the above is part of a two-part series of
articles being rub by ips under the theme ''human rights abuse
being exposed''. the second will be moved tuesday, jul. 28.//