Zimbabwe begins exhuming victims of Mugabe-era massacre

HARARE, 02 May. - (ANA) - A Zimbabwean organisation, Ukuthula Trust, has started exhuming the remains of victims of a government massacre during former president Robert Mugabe's rule, which claimed some 20,000 lives.

Mugabe's regime deployed a North Korean-trained crack military unit to fight alleged dissidents in parts of the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the 1980s, according to rights groups.

The targets were mainly from the Ndebele ethnic group, perceived as backing a rival to Mugabe, who is from the majority Shona group.

Mugabe did not publicly apologise for the crackdown codenamed Gukurahundi (which means "the rain that washes away the chaff" in Shona) except calling the killings "a moment of madness."

The bodies are being exhumed for a decent burial as part of a healing process promised by the government whose head President Emmerson Mnangagwa was state security minister at the time of the killings.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/02 May 2019 - - -