ZIMBABWE: FROM IMPUNITY TO ACCOUNTABILITY 5.2 The resources of a TJRC The Summary records that for the TJRC to be effective it must also be adequately resourced. It will require both human and material resources, and the money to sustain them. It will have to be housed, it will need clerks and secretaries, computers and investigators, and everything that goes with a quasi-judicial body. Zimbabwe is all but bankrupt, and as has already been said above there will inevitably be a great deal of competition for scarce resources when the time comes to start re-building the country. It is inconceivable that Zimbabwe can be re-constructed without massive outside assistance. While there may be an injection of foreign investment after transition, which will form part of a general economic recovery plan, there will also be an obvious need for huge loans and grants and general financial support in cash and 27 kind. The foreign debt is astronomical. In this context who will want to spend money on the ‘luxury’ of a TJRC? One can already hear the arguments that it would be better to concentrate on the present and the future: money can be better spent on health or education, or in re-building the ordinary administration of justice. Civil society ought to begin to counter these arguments now, and not wait until after transition. The potential future Government needs to have it made clear to it that civil society demands justice for the victims, and that without it there will not be long-term peace in the country. So the issue should not be cast in the form of should resources be allocated to a TJRC, but where the money and other requirements will come from. 5.3 The timeframe The Summary envisages a TJRC covering two distinct periods: 28 before 1960, and after 1960. Zimbabweans see 1960 as a turning point as it was then that the possibilities for a relatively 27 A report in the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper on 22 February 2004 put it in the region of US$6,000,000,000: http://www.thestandard.co.zw/ 28 (Appendix II) p.x-xi. 14