ZVIMBA WEST 1. CONSTITUENCY: ZVIMBA WEST 2. PROVINCE: MASHONALAND WEST    3. VENUE: ST. KIZITO CATHOLIC CHURCH MUROMBEDZI GROWTH POINT 4. DATE: 26 NOVEMBER 2009 5. PARTICIPANTS: No.: 24 Sex: 29% female Age: 19–81, average 38 years From: church leaders, youths, women, political activists, traditional leaders and government employees 6. RECOMMENDATIONS i. Truth Recovery • There is a need to expose the evil things that were done during the dark days of violence; there are still secret agents fanning violence [elderly male participant]. • It would be difficult to build peace unless the identity of the perpetrators and the nature of the deeds were exposed [political activists]. • Local truth recovery mechanisms are necessary to identify affected families and bring them together [youth group] but there are questions whether local leaders in the area are equal to the challenge as many of their close relatives participated in violence. Help is therefore needed from the top to enable the communities to confront the past [women’s group]. • Nevertheless, the role of local leaders in truth recovery is critical, as they know what happened in their area. The challenge is they have been intimidated and are still fearful. [elderly male participant]. • “Who will dare begin the process of recovering the truth?” [elderly male participant]. ii. Accountability • There can be no healing if the community continues to see perpetrators moving around and being rewarded for the pain they had caused. “Why should perpetrators of gross violations continue to live among us?” [male participant]. • The law must take its course and those who committed offences must be sent to prison. • Systems of accountability have broken down and there is no hope that, if people go to court, justice will be done [youth group]. iii. Reparations • Wrongdoers must acknowledge their guilt, starting with the leaders, who must humble themselves, come to the people and apologize for what they have done [a youth]. • Too many victims were being forgotten, and victims of politically motivated crimes, such as rape, should be offered counselling, while perpetrators themselves should pay the victims for the injuries they had caused [youth group]. 88 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report