ZANU PF Political Mileage On Unidentified Corpses

After thirty-one years of Mugabe rule, we are beginning to recognise just how Mugabe and his hierarchy and minions operate. Whenever the pressure within rises, they automatically look to relieve that pressure by coming out with some of the most noxious statements and policies known to man.

A few weeks ago, ZANU PF 'found' a mass grave in Mount Darwin North East of Harare. They made claim immediately that the bodies within were their cadres dating back to the 1970s bush war in Rhodesia, now known as the chimurenga.

The exhumation of the bodies, initially numbered at approximately 300, but now 'gauged' at over 1000, was being carried out by untrained war veterans who were obviously more intent on the political mileage that the bodies brought than closure for the families concerned.

Very quickly, it was recognised that the bodies being exhumed were not those of people killed in the 1970s as they still had skin, soft tissue, hair and bodily fluids. Even without official training, bodies that have lain in a mine shaft for thirty-plus years, we would be aware that the bodies would consist of bones alone. But ZANU PF maintains their assertion that these are the bodies of their cadres, killed, they claim, by Rhodesian security forces in the 1970s.

A senior member of Mugabe's party has also stated that the party would like to rebury the bodies and erect a monument to their memory. No mention of pathology or DNA or determining the identity of the dead. Indeed, the manner in which the bodies are being exhumed leaves a lot to be desired.

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The bodies are strewn over a large area, albiet under shelter, but are stored in plastic bags or put into used sacks. Any intention to seek the identity of the deceased is now deeply flawed with the unregulated movement of body parts.

ZAPU, in the form of ZIPRA (the fighting wing of the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, has sought an end to the exhumations, demanding that it now fall under government and be done correctly.

"A Bulawayuo judge on Thursday ordered a halt to the exhumation of mysterious skeletons discovered in a disused mine shaft in the Chibondo area of Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central.

Justice Nicholas Mathonsi granted an interdict sought by the Zimbabwe People’s Liberation Army (ZIPRA) war heroes who are demanding that any exhumations in Mt Darwin, and any part of the country, should be carried out in a government-led "legal process".

The Fallen Heroes Trust, a previously obscure group aligned with ZANU PF and its former military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), says it has dug up 640 bodies and thousands more could still lie in the Monkey William Mine.

The Trust claims the remains belong to combatants killed in the 1970s bush war for independence from white minority rule.

But the interdict granted by Mathonsi on Thursday compels the Fallen Heroes’ Trust to stop the exhumations forthwith, leading to a government process which will seek to identify the remains where possible and facilitate reburial.

ZIPRA veterans, represented by Abammeli Human Rights Lawyers, argued in court that they were concerned some of the remains belonged to their former comrades either killed by Rhodesian forces before independence in 1980, or in the period after independence when ZANLA and ZIPRA fighters clashed in the Mt Darwin area during demobilisation.

The skeletons have been turned into election campaign fodder for President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party.

Since early March, state television has shown Mugabe’s supporters pulling bones from the mine and hauling them off in plastic bags and old sacks.

The pictures also show the site being used to encourage people to sign a petition against western sanctions on Zimbabwe.

ZANU PF claims the remains are of victims of the 1970s liberation war against the white-minority Rhodesian regime led by Ian Smith, when an estimated 30,000 people died."

Of course ZANU PF are going to make their unsubstantiated claims. Anything to take the pressure off of them as they struggle with the SADC demand that political violence in Zimbabwe stop.

I doubt that ZANU PF will abide by any court order with regard to the mass grave as the mileage that they stand to make is worth a lot more than the silence that will encompass the gruesome find.

It must also be noted that the grave was not a 'new' discovery, but has been known about for some time. Obviously, ZANU PF have decided that now the time is right to 'reveal' the 'find' and gain as much impetus as possible.

They seem to avoid the fact that the grave has been common knowledge for some time, overlook the manner of the exhumations, and make totally unsubstantiated claims that the dead bodies are members of their fighting wing slain some thirty-odd years ago.

"Others have cast doubt on that claim, saying the victims may have been killed by ZANU PF forces during one of the many waves of repression that have swept Zimbabwe since independence in 1980."

Mugabe fails to prove his party's claims, but that hasn't stopped him in the past and isn't about to stop him now.

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man