10
has been made to provide restitution for these enormous losses.
However, there was acceptance by the Zimbabwe state that it would be liable for
compensation for injuries has happened in Zimbabwe. The 1980 War Victims Compensation
Act attempted to do just this, but, as I have argued elsewhere16, the Act was flawed in many
aspects, and, most seriously, proved to be so wide open to corruption that the legitimate
beneficiaries did not benefit. Furthermore, if the provisions of the Act were extended to all
victims, the Zimbabwe State would be unable to pay even the most minor amounts of
compensation, and, if forced to follow the guidelines of the UN Commission on
Compensation, would most certainly bankrupt the state for several generations. This can be
more complicated when one section of the community is in reality responsible and should
pay, as in many colonial situations. Here we start to run into the same problems as the justice
component: that attempting to make the perpetrators pay will not end the conflict.
Rehabilitation is probably the most acceptable aspect of reparations, but interestingly
Zimbabwe developed a policy for compensation and not rehabilitation. The War Victims
Compensation Act made provision for payment for injuries sustained and not for the medical
or psychosocial care for those injuries. Medical and psychosocial rehabilitation is probably
within the financial and moral compass of most countries and could probably be done, but
in Zimbabwe there has been no explicit policy on rehabilitation.
So the package can be opened up and different elements taken out, but with what
consequence. It is not enough to merely assert that the package must be taken as a whole, we
must demonstrate that not to do so has pernicious consequences. This is not so simple a task
as it seems as first glance for the linkages are between complex macro systems such as the
justice and political machinery and micro systems such as individual and family functioning
are exceedingly complex, and we do not yet have either the conceptual tools or the
methodologies to studies such interactions easily. As best we can rely upon impressionistic
case studies, and here Zimbabwe can be used to illustrate the need the need for a holistic
conception of reparations.
Effects of Impunity in Zimbabwe
As briefly stated earlier, Zimbabwe has a long history of both torture and impunity, and I
believe that the consequences of both are now increasingly seen in the disease of impunity.
There are three major symptoms evident, quite apart from the continuing torture, and all can
16
See Reeler, A.P [1998], Compensation for gross human rights violations: Torture and the War Victims Compensation
Act.
LEGAL FORUM, vol.10, no.2, p6-21.