Mugabe's genocide, and how Mbecki helped him

"...Matabele ZIPRA deserters and their colleagues remaining in the bush, were labelled ‘dissidents’ by Mugabe and were killed wherever they were found – often brutally and in cold blood. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the then Minister of State Security, announced in parliament in February 1984 that 459 ‘bandits’ as he labelled them, had been killed. There is little doubt that many more than that number were eliminated.

Mugabe had meantime called in the communist North Koreans to train the 5-Brigade (1981). He had a sinister motive for doing so.

The 5-Brigade, which was directly answerable to Mugabe, was variously deployed in Matabeleland over the period 1983 to 1984 – ostensibly to locate and destroy ZIPRA ‘dissidents’. Ultimately, in February 1983, some 16000 square kilometres of Southern Matabeleland and an area of the Midlands inhabited by mainly Matabele people, was cordoned off. Soon thereafter a 24-hour curfew was imposed.

No food was allowed into the curfew area and as the region was in the grips of a third drought in a row, thousands of innocent rural people starved to death.

The 5-Brigade then commenced the systematic and indiscriminate elimination of innocent Ndebele men, women and children.

What supposedly started off as a war against ‘dissidents’ ended up as an attempt to crush the Matabele nation – nothing other than a classic case of genocide - more politely referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

This was punishment and retribution for the attacks suffered by the Shona at the hands of the Matabele during he 1840-1890 period. Mugabe’s 5-Brigade wiped out entire villages so that there were no survivors to tell tales – other villagers simply disappeared.

At least 15 000 and possibly as many as 30 000 were killed in the most brutal fashion – the true number may never be known because of the vast area involved and the methods used. Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian Prime Minister in his book ‘The Great Betrayal’, puts the death toll at 30 000.

The 5-Brigade was led by Colonel Perence Shiri - currently commander of the Zimbabwe Air Force.

This inhuman thug daubed ‘The Beast of Bhalagwe’, set up a torture and killing camp in Southern Matabeleland.

Thousands of men, women and children – regardless of age or health – were rounded up and conveyed to this and other camps to be re-educated in typical ‘old style’ communist fashion.

Thousands of innocents were murdered, raped, maimed, beaten or simply disappeared. Horrendous and sickening methods of torture were employed....

The feared Central Intelligence Organisation under the control of Emmerson Mnangagwa (until recently - January 2005 - Mugabe’s heir apparent), then Minister of State Security in Mugabe’s office, was at the forefront of the brutal and sadistic forms of torture and killings.

The ANC had a presence in Zimbabwe at the time these atrocities occurred. There has never been any condemnation by the ANC of the genocide Mugabe perpetrated on his own black population after independence in 1980....

The seizure of white owned commercial farms that commenced in 2000 was and is a desperate attempt to stay in power – his trump and last card in order to secure victory at the 2002 elections.

These politically inspired land seizures led to the deaths of many, and the displacement of some four thousand mainly white commercial farmers and an estimated 1.5 million black farm workers and their families.

Mugabe does not give a jot about the illegality or consequences of his actions. He has brought economic ruin on his country to save his own skin and to remain in power – and not for the ideological reasons he claims.

The seizure of white commercial farms resulted in the commencement of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse....

Rainfall for that season was only 22 percent below the 50-year average, and in late 2001 dams throughout Zimbabwe were reported full and the stored water available to agriculture.

The resettled black farmers planted few crops either then or thereafter - leading to famine, which persists in 2006.

Mbeki’s statement to the American press (June 2005) that the famine in Zimbabwe is due to the drought is a distortion of the truth – yet another indication of his support for his despotic and tyrannical friend.

According to a World Bank report on Zimbabwe (February 2005) the redistribution of 80% white commercial farmland to the landless poor, has resulted in 70% of Zimbabwe’s 11.6 million people living below the poverty line.

The admission (London Daily Telegraph January 2006) by the Mugabe government that its seizure of white-owned farms has benefited fewer than 10% of black Zimbabweans promised new futures as commercial landowners, establishes Mugabe’s destruction of agriculture and the resultant famine.

The Zimbabwe Land Ministry report declares that a third of the land given to these new farmers is lying idle, nothing was happening on another 11% and 30% was classed as ‘under-utilised’.

The resettlement scheme has benefited only 4 867 people while 1.5 million black farm workers and their families were kicked off white owned farms....

Mugabe often reminds the ANC of the part he played in their struggle – no doubt the ANC’S “hour of need” Mbeki so often refers to.

Mbeki’s lack of firm action against Mugabe can only be due to the historical and ideological backgrounds they share – which is a bad omen for South Africa.

Mbeki could have and still can bring Mugabe to heel by simply threatening to close the border, and if necessary, restrict trade and the flow of essentials supplies to Zimbabwe – a successful ploy John Vorster and Henry Kissinger used to force the Rhodesians to end their war and accept the principle of majority rule....

The article has many many more details, and warns Mbecki, who ignores Mugabe's atrocities and supports the philosophy behind the atrocity, might start importing the same ideas and deeds to South Africa in the future.

Thanks for the "headsup" from Zimfinalpushblog.