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David Cameroon must visit Matebeleland

11 years ago | 10524 Views


By Khumbulani Moyo

The Commonwealth meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka has come and gone. A number of us remain critical of the fact that it was held in Colombo in the first instance but one guesses that the Tamils are happy that the meeting of 53 Commonwealth member states in that part of the world put a global light into the human rights abuses against the ethnic Tamis by the Sri Lanka Government. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his genocidal government were put on the back foot and the Tamils managed to turn the event to be about them and the human rights abuses against them rather than the aims and objectives of the Commonwealth member states’ meeting. It was a job brilliantly done and one must commend the British Prime Minister David Cameroon for giving the Tamil cause maximum oxygen it needed to put the issue back on the international agenda and international spotlight.                                                   

It is commendable that the British via Prime Minister David Cameroon opted to confront Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Government over the ethnic human rights abuses that have and are committed against the ethnic Tamils. It would seem that the Sri Lankan Government continues to exercise its full force and hegemony over the Tamils through a very well militarized North Sri Lanka, where the Tamils are kept in check via the security apparatus of the Sri Lanka government. The same script is happening in Matebeleland in Zimbabwe under the government of Robert Gabriel Mugabe, where Matebeleland is a militarized zone and where any dissent against that oppression is met with the full wrath of the military and security personnel of the occupying Zanu PF government.

It is of interest to some of us that the British Prime Minister went as far as visiting the North of Sri Lanka in his bid to raise the profile of the human rights abuses by the Government of Sri Lanka against the Tamils there. Mr Cameroon did not only put the issue of human rights abuses of the Tamils on the international radar by visiting the Tamil land but went as far as urging the Sri Lanka government to go“ further and faster” in attending to the human rights concerns of the Tamils in that part of the world.  

Mr Cameroon further stated to the international world that the human rights abuses of Tamils are of international concern and that if the Sri Lanka government fails to act on these concerns, he will push for an investigation of these human rights abuses through the ambit of the UN human Rights council. Mr Cameroon has even given a deadline of March for the Sri Lanka Government to act on these concerns be fore he takes the issue to the international human rights body.

Mr Cameroon’s response to the Tamils issue is very commendable and must be praised for it was the right thing to do. We urge him to take notice of the Matebeleland issue in Zimbabwe where over 50 000 Matebele ethnic people were massacred by Mugabe’s Zanu PF government in the 80’s. We urge him to take notice that this massacre of Matebeleland people by  Zanu PF government under a  pogrom dubbed Gukurahundi in the 80’s has already been declared a genocide by Genocide Watch, an internationally body that, “exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder.”  

The conservative government and David Cameroon must take notice of this gross human rights violation that took place in Zimbabwe in the 80's and is still taking place in today's  Zimbabwe, so as to initiate and activate the interest of the same UN organs that he hopes to deal with regarding the Tamil issue. What is a great cause for the Tamils is equally a great cause for the Matebeleland people.

We call upon Mr Cameroon to table such an international investigation on the Gukurahundi Genocide in the same way he is eager and enthusiastic to table such an investigation for the Tamils. What the Tamils have suffered in 2009 and before then is the same as what Matebeleland and its people have suffered since 1983 up to the present time. We believe that our cause and suffering is the same as that of the Tamils who are being ethnically cleansed in Sri Lanka.

But we go further to urge Mr Cameroon to urge his government to look into the issue of improper de-colonization of Matebeleland and Mashonaland, that his government be seized with this improper decolonization of Matebeleland and Mashonaland and work with Matebeleland people and Mashonaland people in the total decolonization of the two states leading to the restoration of the Matebeleleland Kingdom and Mashonaland as separate states.

The British have a moral responsibility to see to it that what they destroyed under the colonial era is restored to what it was before they destroyed it. Matebeleland existed as a separate Kingdom and it is incumbent upon the British to work with Matebeleland and Mashonaland people to restore these countries separately.  It is one lasting solution that can bring closure to the Matebeleland Question in Zimbabwe and help Matebeleland and its people enjoy full rights and dignity  as free and decent citizens of this global village.

Therefore there are three things that we request Mr Cameroon and his government to do regarding the Matebeleland Question. The first thing is for the Conservative Government to table a motion in its two houses, the Commons and the House of Lords, a motion to discuss the restoration of Matebeleland Kingdom and the legal mechanisms to handle this issue under the British and international law systems.

The second issue concerns the Gukurahundi Genocide in Matebeleland that happened in 1983 and still happens today. We urge Mr Cameroon to table a Matebeleland human rights abuses motion for discussion in both British houses so as for him to get the blessing of both houses for him to push the issue of Gukurahundi Genocide in the UN and international fora for redress for the people of Matebeleland.

Thirdly we urge Mr Cameroon to engage the Matebeleland community and its human rights, pressure groups and political organizations in this matter and to make a planned visit to Matebeleland, the southern western parts of Zimbabwe to hear and appreciate the full stories of human rights abuses by the government of Zimbabwe since 1980.

While we acknowledge that the greater responsibility for our freedom remains with us, the people of Matebeleland, we however feel, just like the Tamils, that our cause for freedom and the affordability of our human rights must and should take an international perspective. The British are the first port of call to support our cause by virtue of being former colonizers.

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Anonymous user 10 years
whatever mhata dzenyu mandevere manje yu must thank mugabe and pray kuti arambe aripo akangofa chete muchapamama hapagarike pa zim munodzokera kwamakabva mazikwerekwere evanhu nxaa.
Anonymous user 10 years
We are not afraid of him you asshole u think like a rate imbeba.
Anonymous user 10 years
You Khumbulani, is Moyo your real surname or you borrowed it from your mother? Why do I ask? I ask because no bona fide Moyo would write articles supporting Zulus. Only ana Sinyoro (bazekulu baka Moyo) would write such things.
Anonymous user 9 years
what about our ancestors that were butchered by the Ndebeles when they crossed Limpopo
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