MatabelelandReport

the country, CCJP played an important, politically impartial role in the 1970s: they were able to collect evidence of
human rights abuses committed by the Rhodesian Defence Forces, and were able to publicise these abuses
internationally. CCJP facilitated the international publication of several reports, including The Man in the Middle (May
1975), and The Civil War in Rhodesia (August 1976), both published by the Catholic Institute for International
Relations (CIIR) in England. Since Independence, CCJP archival information has also been used to document the
history of the 1970s. In 1992 Reaching for Justice, a history of CCJP was published (Mambo Press), and in the same
year a CCJP video entitled Caught in the Crossfire was released: this detailed the plight of rural Zimbabweans in the
Liberation War. Apart from CCJP, many other individuals and organisations have also recorded aspects of pre-
Independence history.
This process of documentation means that a crucial period in Zimbabwean history is on permanent record for the
generations yet to come.
The whole southern African region is now enjoying unprecedented peace and stability. The coming of Independence in
South Africa drew to a close the colonial history of Africa. It also began a new process of accountability, and
highlighted the realisation that true reconciliation between people who have traditionally been opposed, is often best
facilitated by honest public acknowledgement of the past. This process need not be vitriolic, but it is important,
particularly to victims, to have their suffering publicly acknowledged. While the suffering caused by colonial rule is
widely documented and internationally recognised, the suffering in
Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s is a history that is unknown except to those who experienced it at first
hand. It is also apparent that while the signing of the Unity accord in December 1987 was an important step towards
national reconciliation in Zimbabwe, there nonetheless remains in rural Matabeleland a deep seated mistrust of the
Government, and a fear that events of the 1980s could be repeated in the future.
This report acknowledges the historical context within which events of the 1980s occurred, and does not seek to
apportion blame. It seeks merely to break the silence surrounding this phase in the nation's history, by allowing
approximately one thousand people who have approached the report compilers in the last year, a chance to tell the
stories they want told. It is hoped that greater openness will lead to greater reconciliation. At the same time, the report
alone cannot result in reconciliation: it is therefore accompanied by a Project Proposal, which puts forward some
concrete suggestions as to how the hardship caused by the 1980s disturbances can now be redressed.
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