As Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) we have always maintained that the Commission of Inquiry into the murder of civilians by the army on August 1, 2018 is highly compromised and no credible outcome can be expected from it.
If anything, the Commission is a stunt by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sweep issues under the carpet and mislead the international community into believing that Zimbabwe is now in the so called new dispensation.
The army was responsible for the shooting of civilians who were protesting against delays in the release of results. The State is, however, frantically trying to misrepresent this reality to ordinary Zimbabweans and the international community.
The arrest and beatings of witnesses by the police in Bulawayo on August 26, 2018 is testimony to the fact that the State, as has always been its norm, has resorted to intimidation as a way of blocking citizens from expressing their views regarding the extra-judicial killing of civilians at the hands of the State machinery in Zimbabwe.
A credible process requires that people are free to come forward with evidence and questions without fear of being persecuted after presenting the evidence.
That has however not been the case as several witnesses have been victimized or threatened by the police and State security agents after giving evidence.
We also take with great exception reports of State security agents being planted as witnesses during the public hearings.
All this is being done in an effort to duck blame for the August 1 shootings through scapegoating. The people of Zimbabwe deserve answers as to who ordered the army to go and shoot civilians who were exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to demonstrate.
We are on record as CIZC that President Mnangagwa and the party that he leads, Zanu PF have always been insincere on issues of national healing or investigations into issues of torture or genocide and this was further evidenced by the victimization of citizens who had raised the Gukurahundi issue during the public hearings in Bulawayo.
Source: Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC)
