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*Heal Zimbabwe Trust Demands The Release Of Dumbutshena, Chihambakwe Reports*

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Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT) has demanded that the government should release reports by two commissions that investigated the Gukurahundi atrocities “as part of truth-telling” ahead of new public hearings in Matabeleland.

The demand by HZT comes after President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday launched the Gukurahundi Community Engagement Outreach Programme in Bulawayo which he said will bring closure to victims.

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However, in a statement issued on Monday, 15 July 2024, HZT said while it acknowledges the first steps taken to address Gukurahundi, it called for a comprehensive, genuine and victim-centred process that satisfies the basic minimum values and standards set out by the African Transitional Justice Policy.

These include African leadership, national and local ownership, inclusiveness, equity and non-discrimination, African shared values, context specificity, synergizing, sequencing and balancing transitional justice elements, due regard to gender and generational dimensions, cooperation and coherence, as well as capacity building for sustainability. Said HZT:

> This is important to ensure that the process achieves the stated objectives and brings true national healing and reconciliation, finally closing the wounds and trauma communities have endured for years.

> The ultimate goal should be building true national healing that is anchored on the pillars of transitional justice set out by the Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights namely: truth, justice, reparations, memorialization and guarantees of nonrecurrence.

Heal Zimbabwe Trust made the following recommendations:

Government must release the reports of the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe Commissions of Inquiry as part of truth-telling.
Government must take a step back from the programme as it is conflicted to lead the process. While President Mnangagwa has said traditional leaders are leading the process, he must not be seen as handholding the chiefs in the process.
The Outreach Programme must be victim-centred, genuine and sincere, recognizing the centrality of victims and survivors in the consultations and the implementation of their demands for true healing in line with the UN Secretary General report on the rule of law in conflict and post-conflict societies (S/2004/616)
The Outreach programme must provide a witness protection mechanism that is clear and well explained to communities to avoid fears of revictimization of survivors. The witness and survivor mechanism must ensure that a) victims are treated with dignity and humanity, b) witnesses are assisted to present their views and concern and c) there is an effective long-term witness protection program.
The process must devolve to the villages to ensure wide consultations that are rooted in communities to ensure no one and no place is left behind. A bottom-up approach is critical in correctly capturing the voices, demands and wishes of the victims and communities affected by Gukurahundi.
Heal Zimbabwe Trust urges government and the traditional leaders to work with civil society organisations that have advocated for the resolution of Gukurahundi instead of vilifying them. Resolving Gukurahundi to build true national healing and reconciliation will require concerted efforts from all stakeholders to foster consensus and cohesion.
The traditional leaders must take a leaf from other African countries that have implemented transitional processes like Liberia, South Africa and Rwanda.

The Zimbabwe Commission of Inquiry into the Matabeleland Disturbances was established by the late former President Robert Mugabe and chaired by Justice Simplisius Chihambakwe. The commission carried out its work between 1983 and 1984, but its findings were never publicly released.

This came after another inquiry in 1981, when Justice Enoch Dumbutshena led a panel of seven members to investigate the mutinous disturbances that took place in February 1981 at the Glenville Military Camp, Ntabazinduna Military Camp, and Entumbane ZANLA and ZIPRA Camps.

In 2003, Mnangagwa, who was the Justice Minister at the time, told the Supreme Court during a lawsuit brought by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation that the findings and recommendations of the Dumbutshena Commission “were solely for use by the government and the government had no legal duty to divulge the findings to the general public.” He added:

> In any case, because of the sensitivity of the matter at the time the report was presented to government, it was not reproduced and as of now, it has not been located.

Retired High Court judge Selo Nare, as chairman of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) in 2019, told journalists that the government had told him that both reports “have been lost.”

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