1980s Gukurahundi massacres: Zimbabwe to exhume mass graves

Zimbabwe 10

Julius Mvulo Nyathi – killed in 1984 – is just one of the people whose remains have already been found

HARARE, April 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to facilitate the exhumation and burial of victims killed in a state crackdown in the 1980s.

Between 5,000 and 20,000 people in southern Zimbabwe are believed to have been killed by security forces under the rule of then-leader Robert Mugabe in what has become known as the Gukurahundi massacres.

Their bodies were stuffed down mine shafts and buried in mass graves.

Many believe the government has done too little to bring closure to families.

There have been no prosecutions and no public apology.

The government has promised to provide medical services to victims, to hold public meetings and to end the harassment of those who speak about their experiences.

It might bring the country nearer to closing the worst chapter in its post independence history. — NNN-AGENCIES

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