MDC-T TO COMPENSATE GUKURAHUNDI VICTIMS

AN MDC-T government would compensate victims of the 1980s Gurukurahundi campaign as well as people affected by election violence and the Murambatsvina slum clearance programme, a top official said Saturday. “On national healing, conference is very clear that the state should apologise, should compensate, should pay reparations to all victims of violence that we have seen in this country including and in particular Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, and the violence we saw in 2008,” said MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti. He was addressing delegates to a three-day policy conference for the MDC-T which started Friday and is expected to finalize the party's preparations for elections due this year and its programme in government should it win the vote. Rights groups claim some 20,000 civilians were killed when the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe deployed a North Korean-trained army taskforce to deal with what officials described as a dissident menace in the two regions. Mugabe established two inquiries into the disturbances – one led by then chief justice Enoch Dumbutshena and another by lawyer Simplicius Chihambakwe – but their findings were never made public. Biti also said his party would trim the army and restrict its operations to matters related to the defence of the nation. The army has in the past been deployed to diamond fields in the eastern Marange district where rights groups reported widespread violations including torture of illegal diamond miners and dealers. "The size of the army must be rationalized taking into account the fact that we are in peace and chances of us going to war are nil,” said Biti. “For the first time in the history of this country there would be an Act of Parliament to regularize the activities of the central intelligence organization. “The army and the security forces must be de-commodified. In other words it is not the business of the army to be in business. The army must keep into the barracks. Zvekuti army irikumadiamonds, iriku platinum, bodo!” Meanwhile, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai vowed to end tribalism in the country, which he attributed to the centralization of, power by Zanu PF. “The biggest national question is the Zezurunisation of this country,” Tsvangirai said. “Isu hatidi zvema Zezuru, hatidi zveMakaranga, hatidi zvemaNdevere. We are one nation with one national objective. So devolution is our instrument of ensuring that no region, no people would be left behind but or policies. “After all tribalism is as archaic as unbridled nationalism. Ukaona uchirikufunga in terms of tribe, go back to the mountains, go back to the bush. We are a modern, prosperous, industrialized society. We should demonstrate that. No tribal enclaves.” The MDC-T leader promised to overhaul the governing regime created by President Mugabe and ensure a free society if it wins upcoming general elections. “The governance culture must change from centralized one man rule impunity violence discriminatory, unequal, that society is gone and it’s gone forever,” he said. He added: “The state in Zimbabwe has behaved in an aggressive and predatory manner towards its citizens. That has to stop. People must not be afraid of their leaders. “I think a good leader must be loved, not loathed. The greatest security you can provide for yourself are your own people. This business of going with entourages and entourages of people who are witnesses and not security in itself…the greatest security is when a leader is confident that he is loved by his own people.” And in remarks aimed at placating workers unions which have accused his party of ditching their members, Tsvangirai said he will personally oversee the grievances of the country’s workforce insisting “we are not anti-labour”.