SANYATI 1. CONSTITUENCY: SANYATI 2. PROVINCE: MASHONALAND WEST 3. VENUE: NYIMO HALL 4. DATE: 16 FEBRUARY 2010 5. PARTICIPANTS: No.: 60 Sex: 28% female Age: 22–78, average 44 years From: church representatives, youths, local leaders, peasant farmers, political activists, survivors of political violence, suspected perpetrators of political violence, suspected state agents and ordinary villagers 6. RECOMMENDATIONS i. Truth recovery • No one was above the law and whatever happened must be brought to light. • People needed to face the truth and decide what to do with it. • There was extreme torture in the country during the elections [political activists]. • Girls were exploited at the political bases in many ways [women]. • Churches complained of being forced to dance kongonya at the political rallies. • The precondition of the healing process is the uncovering of this suffering [participants]. Managing the truth • There was no agreed position. • Civil society must lead the process because they have the capacity to do so [elderly participant]. • Civil society has been in the field collecting data on human rights violations, they have the qualifications, know the people, and have the equipment [one group of political activists was angered by this proposition and called for a party-based process]. • Traditional leaders must lead the process because they have the relevant experience working with the communities. They know the depth of suffering [villagers]. • Let bygones be bygones. “Past is past” [young man]. • “We have the Inclusive Government now and all of us must now leave the past to the past” [women were bitterly against such a view]. • Truth recovery is unnecessary and impractical. “I think the militia have repented. The country is so big that we can’t deal with all the issues that require attention. We can manage to forgive and forget” [individual youth]. • “More people died during the liberation war than during run-off ” [youthful community leader]. • Society must follow the “forgive and forget” route [female participant]. • “We ignore, we forgive and forget and we give them immunity. They will repeat again” [female participant]. Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report 85