By Dumisani Muleya|The sad death of prominent Zimbabwe clergyman Mike Auret in Ireland this morning is a significant event in the history of human rights in the country and its predecessor Rhodesia.
Auret fought tooth and nail during the Rhodesian colonial era and after Zimbabwe’s independence for human rights; he was always on the frontline to defend the masses, the subaltern or marginalised in society, the downtrodden and oppressed when it mattered the most.
But his most significant role on the human rights front was at the height of the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland, where, together with other bishops in Zimbabwe, churches,
civil society activists, diplomats, humanitarian groups and some journalists, exposed the biggest and most vicious post-colonial killings of black people by a black government in the region led by the late President Robert Mugabe.
Auret was part of a Catholic delegation which met Mugabe, a Catholic himself educated by Jesuits, on March 16, 1983 at State House in Harare to discuss the horror killings which had
taken place when the ethno-political crack military unit formed and trained in Nyanga by North Koreans (later assisted by operators from Tanzania) outside the formal structures of
the Zimbabwe National Army, Fifth Brigade, was deployed in Matabeleland North on January 20, 1983, starting in the Lupane areas, before spreading to Tsholotsho, Nkayo and
other surrounding districts.
Soon after that the army unit, which was purged of all ex-Zipras before deployment, rampaged through the region within three months, aggressively intimidating, beating, attacking, slaughtering, raping, maiming and torturing thousands.
The cruelty was far worse than what even colonial security forces had ever meted out on black people in Rhodesia and many other places.Alarmed and shocked by the barbarism and cruelty of the Zanu regime, Auret and other priests confronted Mugabe over the wave of killings sweeping across the south-western region like a ferocious tsunami.
Auret, the chairman of the Catholic Commisson for Justice and Peace (CCJP), was accompanied to that meeting by the other outspoken bishops Ersnt Karlen, Patrick Mutume
and Helmut Reckter.
It was the second time that the bishops were meeting Mugabe over the massacres after they had delivered a report to him on November 5, 1982. Mugabe had initially responded, with the paranoia and fear he always exhibited during that time, saying that his government was “new and vulnerable”, and faced an existential threat from Zapu and Zipra, which had been integrated into the army after demobilisation, as well as the aggressive apartheid South African regime, that he ironically later ended up collaborating with. Mugabe adopted brinksmanship with apartheid; he denounced it when it suited him and collaborated with it against the ANC/Zapu alliance when it was also politically expedient. Mkhonto weSizwe guerrillas were expelled (first from Zezani Camp in
Beitbridge back to Zambia) and hounded in Zimbabwe as Mugabe took a cowardly approach to avoid confrontation with apartheid leaders PW Botha and later FW De Klerk.
And Mkhonto commander in Zimbabewe Joe Gqabi was killed by apartheid agents in Avondale in Harare under circumstances of collaboration by Mugabe. Just before that he
had nee under surveillance by Mugabe’s intelligence services, not for his protection but to make sure MK did not have bases and fight from Zimbabwe.
According to Auret, Mugabe then perused through the dossier of killings, while current President Emmerson Mnangagwa, then State Security minister, and Sydney Sekeramayi,
then assistant Defence minister (Mugabe was in charge of Defence), who were among many other senior Zanu leaders like Enos Nkala, Nathan Shamuyarira, Chris Ushewokunze, Morris
Nyagumbo, and Simbi Mubako spearheading the campaign, sat silent and grim-faced in a tense environment.
After joining Zanu, Callistus Ndlovu and Mark Dube, who was Zanla, and another Zapu defector John Mbedzi became notorious agitators. Nkala and these three, assisted by Nyagumbo, then Zanu commissar, became a menace in Matabeleland.
Karlen was very straight with Mugabe in the meeting: your security forces are killing people on a massive scale and have committed grisly atrocities.
Because Mugabe’s pretext for deploying the Fifth Brigade was to fight the “dissidents” (a reference to ex-Zipra fighters who had deserted infighting in the army), Karlen asked him:
“Why is the army killing civilians, not going after the dissidents?”
Mugabe said his government was very committed and would not retreat from hunting down dissidents, a line he that was to repeat many times, especially when dissidents killed people
as well.
Dissidents also committed attacks and killings, although they were isolated cases. Most of their activities were acts of criminality for survival.
The dissidents later became an eclectic mix and motley group of discontents of ex-Zipras who had deserted the army fearing for their Iives, apartheid surrogate force Super-Zapu (which had nothing to do with Zapu/Zipra – it was led by Tafara Nkomo (Jack Moyo was his non de guerre) and Kaizer Makhurane) and remnants of Zimbabwe -Rhodesia auxiliaries.
Super-Zapu was the brainchild of apartheid Pretoria’s Directorate of Special Tasks – later under Directorate of of Covert Collections – run as Operation Mute. This department handled Renamo affairs in Mozambique and trained Supa-Zapu ar Entabeni, its headquarters at Southpansberg, 80km outside Musina. Apartheid also ran Operation Drama destabilise Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and his regime claimed these groups wanted to overthrow his government. He had also accused Nkomo, Zapu and ex-Zipra, as well as members of Rhodesian forces and MPs,
of plotting a coup against him, a charge to be standardised as a template down in later years
To be continued