ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT’S REFUSAL TO PUBLISH DUMBUTSHENA AND CHIHAMBAKWE REPORTS:

THE ISSUE:

In March and November 2003, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe adjudicated over a case brought by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation against the President of Zimbabwe, who had refused to publish the reports of two public inquiries conducted in 1981 and 1984.

BACKGROUND:

In 1981, the then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe appointed a Commission of Inquiry into disturbances at Glenville, Ntabazinduna and Entumbane military camps. Three years later, Simplicius Chihambakwe was appointed to head a Committee of Inquiry into the activities of the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland and Midlands, between 1982 and 1983. Both the Dumbutshena Commission and Chihambakwe Committee reported to the Prime Minister at the end of their deliberations but the reports were never made public. The government of Zimbabwe argued and still does, that the reports were for government use only, that there was never a legal duty on the Prime Minister or President to publish the findings of the two inquiries. In 2003 and invoking their constitutional right to freedom of expression and by extension, the right to know, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation challenged the President of Zimbabwe to make public the findings of the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe inquiries.

In refusing to publish the findings, the government of Zimbabwe cited the interest of the State and safety of others, also claiming that the Dumbutshena report cannot be found.

MAGGEMM POSITION:

MAGGEMM is an organisation that seeks to preserve and promote the memory of those who died at the hands of Fifth Brigade and other government agencies during the Gukurahundi campaign of 1982-88. To that extent and before we can preserve their memory, we must first KNOW why, where and how they died. The findings of the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe inquiries would go a long way, we believe, towards answering some, if not all of these questions.

We know that the President of Zimbabwe received the two final reports and is fully aware of what is contained in them. We therefore implore him to extend that privilege to the rest of Zimbabwe, in accordance with their constitutional rights. To MAGGEMM, the government’s continued refusal to publish these reports is an admission of guilt and/or culpability in the murder of thousands of people in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s. It is therefore in the government’s interest to immediately make public the contents of these two reports. Failure to do so would be seen and interpreted by us and many others as a cover up that only prolongs the pain and suffering of the victims of Gukurahundi - an infringement of their human rights.