Tsvangirai calls for Zim Truth commission

from AFP

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AFP) — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called Saturday for a truth commission to examine atrocities in the country dating back to the massacres of ethnic minorities in the 1980s.

"This country has gone through a lot of traumatic experiences," Tsvangirai said at the launch of a video on the 1980s atrocities.

"What we have to accept is that in order to heal there must be justice, and in order to have justice there must be truth," Tsvangirai said....
The video documents the Zimbabwean army's bloody campaign known as Gukurahundi -- "the rain that washes away the chaff" -- when a North Korean-trained brigade is believed to have killed some 20,000 people in a counter-insurgency drive.

Tsvangirai linked the massacres of the 1980s to an operation three years ago when President Robert Mugabe's government bulldozed the homes of 700,000 people in what was officially called a slum renewal project.

"The common thing is we have a leader and a government whose main pre-occupation is power-retention," he added....