Staff reporter
Mass graves at Chibondo Monument in Mt Darwin are a sad reminder of the atrocities committed by the Rhodesian government on the people of Zimbabwe during the struggle for independence.
Speaking today at Chibondo Monument, ZANU PF Vice President, Cde Kembo Mohadi said that thousands of people were massacred across the country by the Rhodesians for demanding majority rule.
“There are estimated 218 mass graves throughout the country resulting from Rhodesian killings. Essentially the mass graves were intended to conceal the magnitude of the massacres. The Rhodesians feared international condemnation for these war crimes. Chibondo is therefore not an isolated discovery. It is part of a larger picture on Rhodesia’s intransigent response to the African people’s demand for independence and freedom,” said Cde Mohadi.
Cde Mohadi added that whilst atrocities and killings were taking place in the military operational areas such as Mt Darwin and others, broadly similar events were being replicated in the prison system.
Mohadi further said that the Rhodesian brutality witnessed at Chibondo gives the country the resolve to fight and defend our independence and heritage. He added that research that has been conducted to date on the war time killings revealed that the Rhodesian military usually concealed mass burials for its victims.
Cde Mohadi thanked the Fallen Heroes Trust that led in the exhumation of the bodies at Chibondo Mine. He added that it was clear that the bodies at Chibondo Monument were victims of torture and brutal killings and reiterated that the mass graves were another way by the Rhodesians to conceal the genocide.
Speaking at the same event, the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Kazembe Kazembe said that Government had plans to turn places such as Gonakudzingwa, Altena Farm and Bulawayo Hanging Tree, among many others, into national monuments.
Meanwhile, 849 bodies have been exhumed at Chibondo Mine with thousands still trapped inside five of the mine’s shafts. Government has started sprucing up the area as it has since been declared a national monument.
