Ziyambi Says Arresting Gukurahundi Perpetrators Is Violation Of Mugabe's General Amnesty Declaration
Zimbabwe’s Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi has said arresting perpetrators of Gukurahundi would be a violation of the general amnesty declaration made by the late former President Robert Mugabe.
Ziyambi made the remarks last week while addressing the 107th session of the International Convention on Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) held in Geneva.
He also said the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) would come up with a solution to appease the aggrieved families and victims. NewsDay Zimbabwe cites him as saying:
Soon after independence, we had a commotion. I also lost relatives to dissidents. We cannot arrest the Gukurahundi perpetrators because the issue was dealt with when Robert Mugabe (the late former Zimbabwean President) declared a general amnesty. If we continue to arrest those that partook in the atrocities it would be a violation of the general amnesty declaration.
He said ethnic minorities are not discriminated against, adding that the government had initiated programmes to provide civil registration documents to ethnic minorities.
Ziyambi, who led the delegation, also claimed that the Private Voluntary Organisation Amendment Bill is not discriminatory.
He added that Zimbabwe had domesticated all conventions it is supposed to. He added that while cases of hate speech have been recorded, “Hate speech in Zimbabwe is not targeted racially.”
Meanwhile, ICERD committee expert and taskforce member Yeung Sik Yuen said Zimbabwe had not taken action on previous recommendations, which included that the country should revisit section 61 of the Prevention of Discrimination Act and section 42 of the Criminal Code.
Zimbabwe’s civil society organisations (CSOs) including the Solidarity Centre, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe, African End Sexual Harassment Initiative, Zimbabwe Domestic and Allied Workers Union and the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation, have, however, challenged government to investigate and prosecute all perpetrators of human rights abuses.
