Dumiso Dabengwa responds on alleged ZIPRA atrocities

 

Dumiso Dabengwa, ZIPRA’s former commander, stormed on Sunday: “When it happened, it was war time.

“We are very curious... they should come in the open and say exactly what they want.”

Dabengwa said worse atrocities were committed by Rhodesian forces, and that the new government in independent Zimbabwe had declared amnesty for all war crimes.
“They [former colonisers] suggested the issue of amnesty and it was taken on board. The amnesty was to make no-one responsible for crimes committed during war time.
“For them it was a way of protecting Ian Smith and company from the atrocities they committed. Since they have moved a motion, shall we go back and mention numerous occasions that they massacred our people?

“They want to start a condemnation war and we will take them on because we have the evidence where British racists and special forces did horrible things to us. Let them start the issue and we will not keep quiet.”

Hoey’s motion – which is unlikely to be debated in the Commons but aims to draw attention to the two incidents – coincides with Tuesday’s 34th anniversary of the shooting down of Flight RH827.

The motion, tabled on February 5 and titled ‘Viscount Massacres’, proposes:

“That this House notes that 12 February 2013 will mark the 34th anniversary of the shooting down of Air Rhodesia Viscount Flight RH827 (the Umniati) by members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) in the former Rhodesia resulting in the death of all on board; further notes that this was the second such shooting down of civilian airliners by ZIPRA and followed the shooting down of Air Rhodesia Flight RH825 (the Hunyani) by the same means on 3 September 1978; further notes that the 107 victims comprised civilian men, women and children, some of whom survived the crash of the Hunyani and were subsequently murdered on the ground by bayoneting and shooting; further notes that the victims included citizens from Switzerland, Scotland, Belgium, New Zealand, the UK and South Africa; recalls that the failure to officially condemn these atrocities, as articulated in the sermon by the late Very Reverend John da Costa known as The Deafening Silence, was an act of moral cowardice and deplores such failure; and commends the work done by Keith Nell and his Viscount Down Team to ensure that these atrocities are not forgotten and their ongoing efforts to alleviate suffering amongst the pensioner community of Zimbabwe. This motion has been signed by a total of 6 MPs.”