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(NEWZIMBABWE) EU chief denies Gukurahundi remarks

EU chief denies Gukurahundi remarks
07/02/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter I VOA

THE European Union’s chief envoy to Harare has insisted the EU appreciates how “present and painful the memory of Gukurahundi” remains in Matabeleland and denied claims he dismissed continuing anger over the sensitive issue as “an old song”.

The Bulawayo-based and state-run Sunday News claimed that Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia suggested during meetings in Matebeleland that the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities were an “old song” that should not be allowed to undermine development in the region.

The newspaper quoted Dell'Ariccia as allegedly saying “Gukurahundi has become so much of a tired song in Matabeleland”.

Matabeleland activists and Gukurahundi justice campaigners reacted angrily to the remarks with many accusing the ambassador of insulting victims of the conflict as well as people of the region in general.

Blasted one activist in an email to the Ambassador: “How dare you insult us? You owe us a very big apology. We lost our relatives during Gukurahundi; that’s an old song? Kids don’t have birth certificates; that's an old song?"

But in a statement to NewZimbabwe.com Tuesday Ambassador Dell'Ariccia denied making the remarks and accused the Sunday News of fabricating quotations attributed to him.
“None of the quotes reported as my alleged declarations to the Sunday News' article are accurate,” he said.

“I presume that the dissemination of false declarations obeys to a strategy of defamation of the European Union and tries to create animosity between us and the people of Matabeleland.

And in an interview with VOA’s Violet Gonda, Dell'Ariccia added: "I have never ever in my life used those words. On top of it it’s not even in my vocabulary.

“What I did say is that the people of Matabeleland have an installed capacity in terms of manpower and again with confidence look at the future and their contributions in the overall development of the region."

Political analyst Nkululeko Sibanda, lecturer of Global and African Politics at the UK-based University of Huddersfield told VOA that the Sunday News report was deliberate propaganda by Zanu PF.

He said the alleged statements were clearly out of character for the EU and especially for a career diplomat who would naturally choose their words very carefully.

The EU delegation moved its senior staff to Bulawayo for a week beginning January 30 as part of a programme aimed at “engaging with local economic, social and political actors”.

“The visit and the interaction with the different stakeholders gave us also the opportunity to get a better knowledge about the region and its history; we have in particular been very perceptive of the importance that the past events in the region have for the present and the future development of Matabeleland,” Ambassador Dell'Ariccia.

Human rights groups say more than 20 000 civilians were killed in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions in the early 1980s when then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe dispatched a crack army unit trained by North Korea to put down what was said to be a dissident menace.

Mugabe has not apologised for the killings, only describing them as a moment of madness. Again the findings of a commission he appointed to probe the killings were never made public. Neither were its recommendations acted upon.

Ambassador Dell'Ariccia said his delegation's one-week stay in Matebeleland had enabled his delegation to understand the strength and depth of feeling in the region over the issue.

“We had indeed the opportunity of having a first-hand impression on how present and painful the memory of Gukurahundi is in the mind and spirit of the people of Matabeleland and how this cannot be ignored when conceiving the future development of the region,” he said.

Labels: ALDO DELL'ARICCIA, EU, GUKURAHUNDI

posted by MrK @ 3:01 PM