The Zimbabwean Experience of Transitional Justice Although the history of the Liberation War has been written about copiously, and there has been a largely unsuccessful attempt through the War Victims Compensation Act [Chapter 11 : 16] to offer redress to the victims, the human rights history remains largely unexplored. The human rights violations committed by the Rhodesian forces are known, but not so those of the liberation forces. Furthermore, the attempt to compensate the thousands of victims has been derailed completely by the scandal involving the fraudulent disbursement of the funds. Impunity, too, has left its mark on the social and political processes of Zimbabwe. Thus, it is clear that ZANU(PF) can take enormous credit for the liberation of Zimbabwe from a traitorous and brutal regime, but, unlike the ANC, it has never admitted its own violations, except in passing. There still remain issues to be explained: the Nhari rebellion, the assassination of Herbert Chitepo, and the whole dissolution of ZIPRA remain shrouded in mystery – and, of course, the various impunities render this history even more opaque. The story of the 1980s What happened to you in 1980s? This is also a question that has been asked. Not much for a very long time, but the story has now been told in earnest.11 You would pretty well have to speak Ndebele if you had had a bad experience in the 1980s, during the so-called Gukurahundi. The violence and torture were confined largely to the southern half of Zimbabwe, and seemed to be specifically targeted at Ndebele-speaking people, who were assumed to be supporting the ‘dissidents’. The methods used to punish the recalcitrant during the Liberation War returned in a new and devastating form: pungwes, ‘thorough beatings’ and torture, and public executions – all were used, predominantly by the Fifth Brigade, a special force reporting to the President and ZANU(PF). The difference from the Liberation War was that no one was spared the terror. Whether you were a member of PF-ZAPU, a former member of ZIPRA, or merely an ordinary resident of Matabeleland North or South, you could be a victim. This was not a 11  See Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and Legal Resources Foundation, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands, 1980 to 1989 (Harare: CCJPZ and LRF, 1997); Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, Choosing the Path to Peace and Development: Coming to Terms with Human Rights Violations of the 1982–1987 Conflict in Matabeleland and Midlands Provinces (Harare: ZimRights, 1999). A summary of Breaking the Silence is available at: <http://www.kubatana.net/docs/hr/ccjp_ lrf_breaking_silence_9904.pdf>. Accessed 29 Jan. 2013. International Conference on Transitional Justice, Zimbabwe 35