1/7. Yesterday @DMwonzora wrongly referred to Gukurahundi as civil war. Today he backtracks & decides to play politics by calling it genocide. Our politicians don’t understand the history of the 80s & when they are caught out, they choose to politicise the history of that decade.
2/7. Raphael Lemkin, a victim of genocide (the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany), coined the word genocide. Thanks to his campaign, in 1948 the United Nations Convention on the Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into being.
@DMwonzora
3/7. The UN Conv defines genocide as ‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’. It doesn’t include acts committed against political groups because the Soviets objected to inclusion of political groups @DMwonzora
4/7. Gukurahundi was acts committed with intent to destroy a political group (ZAPU) & its supporters. Calling Gukurahundi genocide is technically incorrect. It was a crime against humanity and calling it that DOES NOT, in any way, diminish the gravity of the crime @DMwonzora
5/7. Also, the figure of more than 20000 dead that @DMwonzora mentions is contested. The CCJPZ report (based on cautious estimations) says not less than 3000 dead. Stuart Doran says 30-50000 dead. Retired CIO figures like Dan Stannard now say 13000 dead.
6/7. Until there is truth telling by perpetrators & declassifying of state intelligence reports from the period, we cannot be certain of the number of civilians that were killed. Politicians stoke divisions when they carelessly throw fatality figures around @DMwonzora
7/7. Politicians need to stop politicising the dark history of the 1980s & also do some serious reading about it. Alexander & McGregor’s book ‘Violence & Memory’ & the CCJPZ report are good places to start. @DMwonzora
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