BBC Expose of Mugabe's Genocide of the 1980's - Black Jesus

[I received this excellent article and comments from Robb Ellis who witnessed the genocide firsthand (see his book, "Without Honour" in our book store. I am told that possibly in May or so, the BBC will be doing an even bigger expose of Mugabe the Mass Murderer. So keep your eyes open folks.

Did anyone tape this perhaps? Robb Ellis and I would like to see it. Perhaps we can get a tape to Robb Ellis. I'll then get it from him.

In here you will hear an interesting story about Black Jesus - that is what the blacks call him. I've heard something similar from their own mouths. I heard about a "Black Jesus" back in 2003 when I was trying to help the Zimbabweans. Jan]

Hi Jan
Sadly, I did not get to see this documentary, but it would appear that is was an expose on the Gukurahundi (Genocide).

“Panorama - Mugabe: The Price of Silence (BBC ONE, 10.15pm, Sunday 10 March) reveals that nearly 20 years ago Britain knew about crimes against humanity committed by Robert Mugabe but failed to act decisively to try and stop them.

In 1983 and 1984 a campaign by Mugabe’s government to crush political opposition in Matabeleland led to the slaughter of thousands of civilians with thousands more beaten and tortured.

Despite a continuing and significant interest in Zimbabwe after independence in 1980, Britain did not confront Mr Mugabe for these crimes, and continued to do business with his most ruthless associate, Perence Shiri, the military commander behind the atrocities.

British diplomats and politicians who knew civilians in Matabeleland were being massacred tell Panorama why they did not do more to try to prevent the slaughter.

Britain’s High Commissioner at the time, Sir Martin Ewans, says that his instructions from London at the time were to "steer clear of it" when speaking to Robert Mugabe.

He tells Panorama: "I think this Matabeleland is a side issue, the real issues were much bigger... We were extremely interested that Zimbabwe should be a success story, and we were doing our best to help Mugabe and his people bring that about."

But Zimbabwean senior church leader Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube tells the programme: "It is gross irresponsibility... to call it a side issue. How would he have felt if his own family had been murdered? It’s surprising now to say from the ivory tower ‘no it will make no difference’. But try and feel with those people who are feeling the pinch, it makes then a difference. At least you can say I tried, even if you fail, I tried my best."

Roger Martin, Deputy High Commissioner in 1984, who witnessed beatings of unarmed civilians, tells Panorama: "… the big picture involved keeping the show on the road for most of the country, recognising that this series of atrocities were taken in limited areas of Matabeleland but not severing relations and watching the whole thing go down the tubes faster."

Lord Howe, Britain’s Foreign Secretary in 1983 and 1984, says that the Zimbabwean government was made aware of the British concern over reports of atrocities in Matabeleland, but says: "There is a limit to what this country can do to impose its will, and to some extent a greater limit in an ex colony with an extremely sensitive government, quite likely to react with increased hostilities when they tend to make you impose our will."

In the programme, the leading British diplomat Lord Renwick - former ambassador to South Africa and the USA - admits the international response was feable, and calls for those responsible for crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe - including President Robert Mugabe - to be brought before an international war crimes tribunal.

On BBC ONE’s Panorama he says: "When this sort of thing happens in Bosnia or Kosovo the world gets its act together and acts, and Milosevic ends up facing a crimes tribunal in the Hague. Now if we really want to do something about these situations in Africa, we can’t... fail to try to do something similar if we really want to make a difference in Africa."

Panorama - Mugabe: The Price of Silence also reveals that the military commander behind the worst atrocities of Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe was invited to study at the MoD’s most prestigious college.

The invitation came barely a year after Perence Shiri led the force that committed the most serious crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe.

Shiri commanded the 5th Brigade which carried out a reign of terror in Matabeleland during 1983 and 1984. The slaughter claimed as many as 20,000 civilian lives and thousands more were tortured.

Despite this, in 1986, Shiri took up a place at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, an institution that describes itself as "the senior Defence academic institution in the United Kingdom. The most prestigious institution of its kind in the world".

Senior MDC MP and human rights activist Mike Auret, who compiled a report into the Matabeleland massacres in 1997, tells Panorama: "Perence Shiri above all knew precisely what was happening, he gave the orders and he, if nobody else, he deserves a world court. The crimes committed by the 5th Brigade under his command were gross crimes against humanity."

General Sir Edward Jones, who commanded the British Military Advisory and Training team from 1983 to 1985, tells Panorama: "…undoubtedly he was the man who was going to be important in Zimbabwe and I think it was important that we should influence him positively in so far as we could."

Shiri went on to command the Zimbabwe Airforce and he organised the farm invasions by war veterans during the past five years in Zimbabwe. Two years ago Britain sold crucial spare parts for the Hawk jets of Shiri’s airforce, a decision taken by Tony Blair against the advice of his Foreign Secretary.

During the campaign of terror in Matabeleland in 1983 and 1984 he was known as "Black Jesus". Panorama speaks to eyewitnesses who saw Shiri select women in Silobela village in 1983 to be taken away to be raped and who saw Shiri beat an old man unconscious.“

"Panorama goes inside Zimbabwe, defying the ban on BBC journalists, and investigates crimes against humanity under Robert Mugabe's rule.

The situation is fraught as Mugabe unleashes more terror in a bid to secure re-election as president.

Reporter Fergal Keane evades secret police and gangs of war veterans, travelling into southern Zimbabwe to hear accounts from eye-witnesses and victims of Mugabe's bloody campaign in Matabeleland in the 80s.

Robert Mugabe is accused of committing mass murder in the early years of his rule. At this time, Britain was giving him huge sums in economic aid and was training the Zimbabwean army.

British Government's role questioned

Panorama reveals what the British Government knew about Mugabe's campaign of mass slaughter, and investigates whether anything was done to stop him.

The programme asks whether failure to confront Mugabe then gave him the confidence to believe he could get away with murder.

A leading British diplomat at the time tells Panorama: "I think this Matabeleland is a side issue, the real issues were much bigger. We were extremely interested that Zimbabwe should be a success story, and we were doing our best to help Mugabe and his people bring that about."

A prominent Church leader in Zimbabwe is furious: "It is gross irresponsibility to call it a side issue. How would he have felt if his own family had been murdered?"

Panorama examines whether Britain was right to ignore these atrocities, and whether interventions would have made any difference."

-o00o-

NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS-HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY.

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PANORAMA

"The Price of Silence"

RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 10:03:02
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FERGAL KEANE: Britain wants the world to get tough with this man, but what did Britain do when Robert Mugabe slaughtered thousands of his people in the 1983s?

ARCHBISHOP PIUS NCUBE: People being buried alive on their graves. A woman raped in the same house, in the same room as her daughter.

GEOFFREY HOWE: There is a limit to what this country can do to impose its will, and to some extent a greater limit in an ex-colony with an extremely sensitive government.

KEANE: This man led the killing for Mugabe, so why was he welcomed to Britain just after the atrocities and two years ago given vital military hardware by our government? As Robert Mugabe fights to cling to power Panorama reports tonight from here in Zimbabwe and from Britain on an extraordinary story. It involves the massacre and torture of thousands of innocent people. It's a story that leaves Mugabe with blood on his hands and Britain in the dock accused of appeasing a ruthless tyrant.

Matabeleland, South Western Zimbabwe, 19 years ago this rural province witnessed some of the worst atrocities of our age. The man responsible is still in power. Robert Mugabe has unleashed a new wave of repression, but we first saw the real Mugabe in Matabeleland.

Defying Robert Mugabe's ban, Panorama has travelled to the scene of his worst crimes.

FERGAL KEANE: This is a country in a state of fear. Everywhere you go there are militia, police road blocks, and of course the spies whom you can't see. Now in circumstances like this, easily the most difficult I've ever worked in, it's very, very difficult to find people who are willing to speak out about what happened 20 years ago. But there are some brave people and I'm on my way to see them. A Catholic priest who keeps lists of the missing. Father Hebron Wilson remembers what happened when Robert Mugabe sent his special troops, the 5th Brigade, to Matabeleland.

Father HEBRON WILSON: The people said Father, our children have been taken, we don't know where they are, or will we ever see them again.

Lt Col ESAU SIBANDA (Zimbabwe National Army, 1980-95): Typically what they will do, they would kill people or not even kill them, force them to take their own lives. Force their children, their wives, to bury them alive, and then they force them to dance on top of the grave,

KEANE: Robert Mugabe had at first seemed a model African leader, democratically elected and not corrupt. But with political enemies he was to prove ruthless. Panorama has spoken to survivors of his atrocities and to key political figures in Zimbabwe and Britain.

Lord RENWICK (Foreign Office, 1963-95): What he believes in above all is power and holding on to power by all means. Therefore in effective control over the intelligence agencies, the security forces and so forth. He also believes, as he used to tell me, that power comes from the barrel of a gun.

KEANE: Mugabe's ZANU party drew its support from the Shona Tribe who made up 80% of the population and backed his call for a one party state. That would prove devastating for the minority Ndebele Tribe who supported the main opposition.

ROGER MARTIN (Deputy High Commissioner Zimbabwe, December 1983-86): From one particular senior intelligence officer, I had a conversation with him, and he said "You must understand our history. Until 1890 when Cecil Rhodes blew a whistle and stopped play the Matabele raided us and treated us Shona like cattle. Now, 70 years later, the whites have gone away again and they still believe that they are the same Matabele and we are the same Shona. In fact they have the rights and responsibilities of a 20% ethnic minority within a majority Shona modern state and we have to teach them their position in life, and the way to do that is to beat them until they realise we are not the same Shona they used to tyrannise in the past." Now, I found that disgusting of course but at least it was comprehensible. It had a certain rationality other than mere brutishness.

KEANE: The opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo was accused of plotting a coup. Some of his supporters began a terrorist campaign against government officials and white farmers in Matabeleland. Apartheid South Africa armed and trained dissidents to destabilise Zimbabwe. But Mugabe would use the dissident attacks and the murder of white farmers as an excuse to crush all opposition.

JOSHUA MUGABE: [Speaking from a platform] My government will never rest until those within that party who are responsible for organising the dissidents are crushed and crushed fully.

[Applause]

KEANE: Mugabe was about to unleash these men, the 5th Brigade. Specially picked from Mugabe's Shona tribe they were trained by North Koreans. The 5th Brigade would be used to crush the Ndebele. They reported directly to Mugabe.

Lt Col ESAU SIBANDA (Zimbabwe National Army, 1980-95): He knew what was going on because every day there's a secretary debrief. The army chief will tell him what the army had been doing over the period of 24 hours… the last 24 hours. So he is briefed every day whether there's a war going on or no war going on.

KEANE: Within days of their deployment here in Matabeleland the 5th Brigade began to spread terror among the civilian population. The people have come to know the campaign as the Kukorahundi. In English that means 'the wind that sweeps away the dust' for that is what the people of Matabeleland became to Mugabe's soldiers, mere dust that could be swept away.

March 1983

KEANE: In the spring of 1983 Robert Mugabe warned villagers against supporting dissidents. "Don't cry if your relatives get lost" he said.

PIUS NCUBE (Archbishop of Bulawayo): People just being gunned down, shot, people being herded into a hut, 40 souls together and they were set alight and outside the soldiers telling anyone who comes out I'll shoot. Most atrocious things, most unspeakable things were done.

MANDLA NYATHI: All of them were wearing red berets, very unusual faces, never smiling, very unfriendly. To say I was afraid of them, I don't think really describes exactly how I felt when I saw them. It was more than that. You could feel your bones shaking whenever you heard that they were around.

KEANE: Travelling through Matabeleland you find a landscape crowded with memories of the

Kukorahundi. The stories rank with the worst atrocities of our age. A family of 24 attacked in the village of Silobela.

THEMBI: One day I was sitting at home with my sister and then they arrived. They wanted information from my father who was the man in charge of the village. My father couldn't help them. They called him a liar and started to force us all into a hut. We were all forced inside. They planned to set the hut alight. Then one of the soldiers opened a door to let me out. I left and then had to watch as they set the hut on fire. They burnt all the men and women inside, my mother and father included.

KEANE: Within a fortnight of the 5th Brigade's deployment the British press was reporting stories of widespread human rights abuses. The newspapers spoke of murder, rape and torture. In March 1983 Panorama broadcast a film which spoke of thousands dead and widespread abuse.

Panorama (21st March 1983)

REPORTER: Anyone suspected of any contact with the dissidents was liable at least to a beating.

[Scenes of violent beating]

KEANE: But when Panorama questioned a British officer training troops of the regular army, he seemed unaware of the tribal rivalries.

Colonel CHUCK IVEY (British Military Advisory & Training Team): And I must answer that here in this particular unit there are no... there's no evidence of this at all. And from what we've seen of all that student effort that come from everywhere, I think that what the problems of two years ago have now diminished into almost nothing.

REPORTER: What, in spite of all the stories out of Matabeleland?

IVEY: Well there are stories in Matabeleland and there are stories in Ireland and you want to believe who writes what story.

KEANE: British trainers with the regular Zimbabwean forces were not allowed near the 5th Brigade but they were hearing about human rights abuses as were diplomats in Harare.

Sir MARTIN EWANS (High Commissioner Zimbabwe, 1983-85): We knew that there was an insurrection or something happening in Matabeleland. The 5th Brigade which had been trained by the North Koreans was down there and of course reports were coming out of some

fairly brutal operations. There was obviously an unhappy situation down there to say the least.

KEANE: As the former colonial power Britain faced a dilemma. It had negotiated the end of white rule in Zimbabwe but knew it was regarded with deep suspicion by Robert Mugabe. It didn't want to be seen to interfere in its former colony. But it became Zimbabwe's biggest aid donor.

21st December 1979

LORD CARRINGTON (Foreign Secretary, 1979-82): We shall give you all possible support in developing a spirit of reconciliation throughout Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, and ensuring the next decade there will be one of peace and prosperity.

KEANE: But in the spring of 1983 Robert Mugabe's 5th Brigade was destroying the dream of peace in Matabeleland. Pregnant women were attacked at a clinic.

ANONYMOUS: You know what happens with pregnant women, they go for checks monthly to see what happens. So they were put in this other clinic in this area. They were made to sing, in groups, they were made to sing and that was the last time they opened their mouths because they were cut like that and the foetus came out. So by the time we came to that clinic they were already dead and we put some blankets on, to cover them up.

KEANE: Can I just ask you to be very specific in this, what was the name of the clinic?

ANONYMOUS: They called it the Ntabeni clinic in Zhombe area.

KEANE: And what exactly did you yourself see?

ANONYMOUS: I saw the dead people there - dead.

KEANE: Two names recur in this horror, Robert Mugabe who sent in the 5th Brigade and his close associate the Brigade Commander Perence Shiri. To officers from the regular army Perence Shiri was a distant figure.

Lt Col ESAU SIBANDA (Zimbabwe National Army, 1980-95): He's not talkative. He tends to be by himself, drinking all the time, appears lonely to me, and I won't say he's a... I won't describe him as an intellectual type. No, he's just an ordinary chap, below average if you like.

KEANE: Shiri did more than give orders.

MANDLA NYATHI: I saw him demonstrating what he meant by beating a peasant and he was using a very massive log. He beat so thoroughly all over the body, buttocks, head, anywhere where he could land the log.

KEANE: Some eye witnesses still live in fear of Shiri. What do the local people call this man?

ANONYMOUS: They used to call him a black Jesus.

KEANE: Why?

ANONYMOUS: Because he could determine your life like Jesus Christ. He could heal, raise the dead, whatever. So he claimed to be like that because he could say if you live or not.

April 1983

KEANE: In the first two months of the terror Britain's then High Commissioner privately registered concern of Mugabe on two occasions. Then in late April the Foreign Secretary Francis Pim said he'd made Britain's concern very clear to Zimbabwe, but mindful of attacks by dissidents he added: "I think it's a difficult situation for Mr Mugabe to handle. He's got to deal with the situation as he finds it. In the course of doing that, some incidents have taken place which obviously everyone disapproves of, I daresay he does himself, but he's got to get control of his country." The Foreign Office was about to send a new High Commissioner to Zimbabwe. He faced a dilemma. Would he protest strongly about the atrocities and risk a row with the volatile Mugabe?

Sir MARTIN EWANS (High Commissioner Zimbabwe, 1983-85): I think to have protested to Mugabe or to have gone on record as not liking what was going on down there would not have been helpful. Mugabe would have resented it very acutely. I think it might even have been counterproductive, it might have damaged the policies we were trying to follow of helping Zimbabwe to build itself up as a nation.

KEANE: Did you protest personally to Mugabe about what was happening?

EWANS: No, I didn't.

KEANE: No protest?

EWANS: No.

KEANE: Do you have any regrets about that?

EWANS: No, I think this business has really perhaps been rather blown up. It wasn't pleasant and people were being killed, but as I said, I don't think anything was to be gained by protesting to Mugabe about it.

KEANE: What was the advice from London about how one dealt with Mugabe, particularly around something like Matabeleland?

EWANS: I think the advice was to steer clear of it in the interests of the.. of doing our best positively to help Zimbabwe build itself up as a nation.

KEANE: There would be periods when no massacres took place, but the 5th Brigade remained at large. Violence may have fluctuated and the terror was constant.

July 1983

KEANE: In the House of Commons, neither the Government nor the Labour frontbench condemned Mugabe. The only strong words came from a few Tories to whom the Foreign Office was guilty of appeasement. One of them asked if British aid would be withdrawn.

NICHOLAS WINTERTON: Sir Geoffrey Howe replied: "Our impression is that the situation in

Matabeleland has improved considerably in recent months. We have, nevertheless, heard of these reports and are seeking to establish the facts.

KEANE: What do you think of that reply now?

NICHOLAS WINTERTON MP (Conservative backbencher): I think it was a typical Foreign Office reply. It avoided the issue, avoided really what was going on.

KEANE: You said at the time that it was your impression things had improved considerably in recent months. What gave you that impression?

Lord HOWE (Foreign Secretary, 1983-89): Well the reports we'd had at that time. We had been making representations, as I've said, since before I arrived in the Foreign Office early in that year, and the reports we were getting indicated changes in the pattern of behaviour, and I was simply reporting what I'd had reported to me.

KEANE: Because things hadn't of course changed.

HOWE: I'm not sure about that. The evidence fluctuated from time to time according to where your evidence was coming from.

WINTERTON: The facts were there. Hundreds, thousands, of innocent Matabele had been slaughtered, and if they were seeking to establish the facts, well all I can say is I wonder where they had been. They must have been living in another world.

31st August 1983

KEANE: But the following month Britain suddenly got tough about a group of white detainees. Several white Zimbabwean air force officers had been illegally imprisoned. The Zimbabwean High Commissioner was summoned to the Foreign Office and a bitter dispute with Mugabe erupted. There were hints British aid might be cut. Mugabe spoke of sending Zimbabwe's whites to Britain. The men were eventually freed but Mugabe professed surprise at Britain's concern.

MUGABE: Why is there so much concern about these men, they are not the only ones in detention, there are others as well. Is it because they are white? Is it because they are Mrs Thatcher's kith and kin?

HOWE: They were British citizens as well as Zimbabwean citizens and they were being held quite unlawfully and very badly treated, and that was raised. And obviously we'd have been in grave trouble had we not raised that. But I resent very much the suggestion there was discrimination on those grounds.

KEANE: In the Ndebele tradition the dead can only rest when the living have shed their tears. The 5th Brigade would not allow this. Many who cried were themselves murdered. It would not be possible for us to tell this story without the bravery of a small group of church people. Father Hebron Wilson collected eye witness testimony, others risked their lives to get it to him, like the man caught near his church.

Father HEBRON WILSON: Automatically he fell down, and then I could see, because I'd seen them before in close range, with a bayonet you see, they bayoneted you near the hip, so he would screech, and then that is what I actually saw, and I managed to get the national identity of that person.

KEANE: You got his name?

WILSON: Yes, I've got his name.

KEANE: What happened to him?

WILSON: Well he died.

November 1983

KEANE: In November Foreign Office minister Malcolm Rifkind visited Zimbabwe and met Robert Mugabe. His statement to the House of Commons on his return does not mention Matabeleland. One of the key British figures in Zimbabwe was the Commander of the military advisory team, General Sir Edward Jones who reported directly to Robert Mugabe. Were you worried by the reports that were coming back in of murder and torture and rape?

General Sir EDWARD JONES (British Military Advisory & Training Team 1983-85): Yes, of course we were concerned about it, but if you go on to ask the next question which is what could we have done about it, the answer is very little. I've already said that we were kept at arms length from Five Brigade, and had I raised the question critically with the army commander or with the Prime Minister, there's no doubt in my mind that the confidence that they had in us would have been undermined, and it would have been counterproductive to the work that BMATT was doing.

KEANE: Delhi, November 1983. As the year was coming to a close Geoffrey Howe and Margaret Thatcher were to meet Robert Mugabe at Chogham, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in the Indian capital.

You say, to the best of your recollection, Matabeleland wasn't raised. Wasn't he entitled from encounters like that and from the failure of people at a senior level - cabinet level like yourself or Mrs Thatcher – to condemn him on Matabeleland, that he could get away with murder?

LORD HOWE (Foreign Secretary, 1983-89): No, he was in no doubt about our disapproval of that. Frankly we were looking at a whole range of other issues at Chogham at that time, on the Commonwealth agenda.

KEANE: But how much more important could they have been than the slaughter of thousands of people, the concentrations camps in which people... there was mass rape. How much more… what issues could be more important?

HOWE: The whole future of South Africa was at stake in our discussions at Chogham. The state of the east/west civil... military conflict, the Cold War was at stake.

MIKE AURET (The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Zimbabwe): They could have done much more. They could have insisted that Mugabe stop the action there or the British Government assistance which has amounted to I think 57 million British pounds over the years would stop.

HOWE: Our influence was necessarily limited. Had we sought to, for example, withdraw or cancel our aid programme then that could well have had a negative reaction, not just on Mugabe's performance but on the economic stability of the country as a whole.

ROGER MARTIN (Deputy High Commissioner Zimbabwe, December 1983-86): Among the short-term self interest, the points you might have put in your analysis of what our interests were was that no British Government wanted a couple of hundred thousand British citizens appearing with cardboard suitcases at Heathrow, the sudden expulsion of whites if we'd pulled the rug on the aid and as it were denounced Mugabe. This was a real threat.

KEANE: So for the first 8 months of the Matabeleland crisis Britain stuck to the policy of quiet diplomacy. But there would be a new terror to challenge Britain's policy makers. In early 1985 the 5th Brigade was sent to the south of Matabeleland. A British diplomat who'd gone to the area to show solidarity with white farmers under threat from dissidents encountered the Brigade.

MARTIN: A platoon of the 5th Brigade turned up, they had ordered all the workers from the farm to gather together. They were forcing them to sing songs in Shona, liberation songs, nothing to do with Matabeleland. They were poking them as they capered about singing these songs with their AK bayonets, not drawing blood particularly as poking, humiliating, and then making them lie flat if they didn't sing well enough on the ground face down and beating them with strips of rubber that they carried with them, or with sticks.

KEANE: And you saw this happening.

MARTIN: Saw this happening. We complained, we asked them to stop, we asked them to treat people well because had done no harm and they laughed and made quite clear they were not going to do that because that was what they were ordered to do. Whereupon, having no other choice, we left, went on our trip, leaving the workers to their fate which was not going to be killed, it was going to be humiliated and punished physically.

KEANE: How did you feel leaving?

MARTIN: Terrible, obviously. What would you feel yourself, but what else could we do? We weren't doing any good there. So... and this was happening, as we knew, across the whole of Matabeleland, very blatant.

KEANE: As part of the new strategy Mugabe imposed a food embargo. No food aid was to be allowed into the drought stricken region. He was trying to starve the Ndebele into submission. Soldiers told villagers they'd be forced to eat their children. Then the disappearances began. Thousands of detainees would endure the horror of Milahwi Camp. Women were gang raped here, mutilated with sharp sticks. An eye witness told us that the 5th Brigade Commander, Perence Shiri, had used rape as a weapon of war earlier in the campaign.

ANONYMOUS: They took about nine lady teachers. They took them to a place called Silobela where they were gang raped.

KEANE: How do you know this?

ANONYMOUS: They told us, the ladies told us, after the incident. Among those 9 there was one of my girlfriends, so this is the very person who told me everything. After I comforted her and told her, no, it's not your fault. I said, 'Say out please what happened.' Then she told me what happened. And Perence Shiri himself actually lined them up like that and chose the most beautiful one.

March 1984

KEANE: In March of 1984 Zimbabwe received a royal visitor. Prince Charles would meet the man he'd first met at the Independence celebrations four years previously. Then after returning to Britain the Prince would have lunch with a newspaper editor who published who'd published his own eye witness account of the atrocities. Donald Trelford's story in the Observer had provoked a major controversy in Britain.

DONALD TRELFORD (Editor, 'The Observer' 1975-93): I was invited to lunch by Prince Charles, it was part of a charm offensive I think by Prince Charles and Princess Diana and I went to lunch with Peter Preston, the Editor of the Guardian, just the two of us. And in general conversation over lunch, because it was soon after I'd been to Matabeleland and obviously it was a subject to talk about, the subject came up. He said "Ah yes, those massacres in Matabeleland, the Foreign Office told me that it was all exaggerated. Well... you know, I was tempted, had it been any other dinner party I would have taken up the cudgel. But I sort of said I'll let it pass, it's too complicated. But I was shocked that the whole thing could be swept away quite so easily.

KEANE: In April Malcolm Rifkind expressed his government's concern to a Zimbabwean Cabinet minister. The deputy High Commissioner privately warns Zimbabwean ministers a shipment of EU food aid might be delayed. The Foreign Office may not have known the detail of the horror, but what it did know was troubling enough.

ROGER MARTIN (Deputy High Commissioner Zimbabwe, December 1983-86): Clearly we knew that atrocities were being committed. I did not know, although we had very good information, anything like the scale of killing that has since been revealed. By the time I left I would have hoped... it had stopped and I would have put the killing in the low thousands.

KEANE: The low thousands! In May 1984 a minister said Britain condemned human rights abuses wherever they occurred in the world but had no right to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs and no responsibility for them.

Sir MARTIN EWANS (High Commissioner Zimbabwe, 1983-85): We had very much an eye to what was happening in South Africa at the time with apartheid and we were hopeful that Zimbabwe would be something of a contrast, and South Africans would look at Zimbabwe and

say ah yes, it is possible to work with as multiracial society. So I think Matabeleland is a side issue. The real issues were much bigger and more positive and more important.

PIUS NCUBE (Archbishop of Bulawayo): Here we're supposed to speak up, that was the responsibility on the part of that British Ambassador to say that is a side issue. He should imagine if his own family is being murdered, is that a side issue?

KEANE: After nearly two years of terror with the Ndebele crushed, the 5th Brigade was withdrawn. But the mastermind of their atrocities, Perence Shiri, was about to go on to much greater things, and Britain would help him on his way.

MIKE AURET (The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Zimbabwe): Perence Shiri above all knew precisely what was happening, he gave the orders, and he, if nobody else, he

deserves the world court. The crimes committed by the 5th Brigade under his command were gross crimes against humanity.

January, 1986

KEANE: But this is not a world court. It's a state financed institute of learning, one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world and it's here in London, a place that promises access to statesmen and government officials. The British Government knew that the 5th Brigade had committed serious abuses of human rights in Matabeleland. It also knew that the 5th Brigade was commanded by Perence Shiri. So what did it do? Did it push for an investigation of Perence Shiri? Press for him to be brought before a court? No! In fact the British Government allowed Perence Shiri to come here to the Royal College of Defence Studies in London as an honoured guest.

GENERAL SIR EDWARD JONES (British Military Advisory & Training Team Zimbabwe 1983-85): I think I'm right in saying that he was the first officer from the ZNA to go to the Royal College of Defence Studies and we had him down here for lunch one day because I felt it was... I wanted to hear the news from home so to speak, and he came down here, we had a most enjoyable Sunday lunch and he charmed our other guests.

KEANE: Do you know what the Ndebele called him?

JONES: No.

KEANE: Black Jesus.

JONES: I'm sure.

KEANE: Because he was the bringer of divine retribution.

JONES: Yes, I'm sure.

KEANE: They remember him as a war criminal.

JONES: Yes.

KEANE: I'm just wondering if you feel any unease about the kind of welcome he was given in this country, not just by yourself but by the fact that he was brought to the Defence Studies College.

JONES: Well I think that all of these things, it's very easy to question these sorts of things, but undoubtedly he was the man who was going to be important in Zimbabwe and I think it was important that we should influence him positively in so far as we could.

AURET: That's unforgivable, unforgivable! He should not have been allowed into Britain. He should never have been allowed into Britain. I've no doubt that if you sat opposite Milosevic he'd be a very charming man. He would no doubt offer you a glass of wine and have a chat about the weather. The same might have been said about Hitler in the early days, you know. Perence Shiri is undoubtedly a charming man but Perence Shiri was responsible for the deaths of many thousands of people in Matabeleland - horrifying deaths, not easy deaths, horrifying deaths. Perhaps Jack the ripper was a charming man.

KEANE: Perence Shiri rose to the top of Zimbabwe's power structure becoming head of the air force. Just two years ago Britain came to his aid by selling him crucial parts for these Hawk 200 jets. Tony Blair himself approved that decision. Now the men London failed to confront in the past have come back to haunt Britain. When Robert Mugabe started to seize white farms two years ago it was his old friend Perence Shiri, the Commander of the 5th Brigade, who was called in to organise the terror.

DONALD TRELFORD (Editor, 'The Observer' 1975-93): Mugabe, because he was unrestrained, because he was allowed to do anything he wanted, he even dared then to turn on the whites which he would never have done initially unless he felt well people are not taking any notice, they're not bothering, I can go on to the next phase and start taking their land unconstitutionally, beating them up, sending in people to beat them up, having the opposition killed.

He just knew, because of the silence, he could get away with murder.

LORD RENWICK (Foreign Office, 1963-95): It is true that the international response to the crisis in Matabeleland was extremely feeble, indeed almost nonexistent. I think that there should have been stronger protests, yes, at the time - not just by us but by others - about what was happening there because it was a horrible precedent.

But I want to come back to what's happening now. I'm less interested in the mistakes we made 18 years ago than in the mistakes that could be made now, and unless we're prepared to be much tougher about this kind of thing, and when this sort of thing happens in Bosnia or Kosovo the world gets its act together and acts, and Milosevic ends up facing a crimes tribunal in the Hague. Now if we really want to do something about these situations in Africa, we can't fail to try to do something similar if we really want to make a difference in Africa.

KEANE: Such fighting talk has come 19 years too late for the Archbishop of Bulawayo, a man relentlessly condemned by Robert Mugabe. He defies death threats to speak out for human rights and wonders why others failed to do so in the past.

PIUS NCUBE: People must try and feel with those who are involved how they feel. It's quite nice to say from the ivory tower 'yes, no, it will make no difference' but try and feel with those people who are feeling the pinch, it makes any difference. At least you can say I tried, even if you fail, I tried my best.

HOWE: Of course he has total sympathy with the situation there and one has a total understanding of how he might have wished for things to happen differently in the past. But that is applying the wisdom of hindsight. We did not have power to control what Mugabe did.

KEANE: The victims of Mugabe's terror, most do not even know where the bodies of their loved ones have been dumped.

'SITHABILE' (Thembi's grandmother): Which law can control them, who can we turn to? They are a law unto themselves. They make up their own laws - and they kill us.

'THEMBI': I think about it all the time. Nothing can stop me thinking about it. I remember vividly seeing the fire and everything that happened. It has ruined my life. I will be poor for all my life.

KEANE: Britain knew the real Mugabe from the very earliest days of his rule. It did face a dilemma in Zimbabwe, but by putting its faith in quiet diplomacy it ended up becoming a bystander to crimes against humanity.

www.bbc.co.uk/panorama

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Following the airing of the documentary above, these are the comments posted on the BBC website:

I agree with everyone who castigates the British Government's lack of action in the early 80s, but want to underscore the fact that the present government is, in many ways, doing even less. There is no way we cannot be aware of what is going on - no blanket to hide under. Why is it that the Idi Amins, Mengistus and Sadam's (and let's not forget Mugabe) of this world get away with it? This whole election process is a sham, and we all know it. If the Commonwealth, at least, cannot react appropriately it should not exist. I hope we all read Matthew Parris' article in Saturday's Times - another good piece of journalism from someone who knows the country well! God help Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans - black and white. I agree with one of the previous writers that the priests who have laid their lives on the line to bear witness to the truth deserve our prayers and thanks.

Sue Shaw
Nottingham

Fascinating and horrifying edition on Mugabe and the UK. Clearly Mugabe is a disaster for Zimbabwe but is this a case of ANYBODY being better than him or is Morgan Tsvangirai really the best person for Zimbabwe? Could this turn out to be another case of backing the Taleban or Sadam Hussain and then throwing up our hands in horror if he turns to the bad?

Lloyd Sweeney
Essex

The events of September 11th were of course terrible, but why are 5,000 murders so atrocious, but 20,000 murders in Zimbabwe a mere "side issue"?

Kris
Bristol

Might I suggest that rather than engage in hindsight-dominated denunciations, your correspondents might try to understand what was happening in Zimbabwe at the time.

Zimbabwe had gone through a decade of vicious civil war. By some miracle, the Lancaster House Conference had been successful, and majority rule had been achieved by means of a democratic election. At Independence, Mugabe, hard as it may now be to credit it, went on television to urge everyone to forget the past and join in creating a new multi-racial Zimbabwe. The country responded, and Mugabe's government contained two white ministers and an international civil servant of high repute. Britain tried to help in two main ways, in retraining the former guerrilla forces as a responsible, professional army and in implementing a land resettlement programme, to abolish progressively the unequal distribution of land and appease land hunger. With much of the rest of Africa failing, everyone was anxious that Zimbabwe should not go the same way.

Against this background, Matabeleland erupted. To what extent was not known at the time. To have made an issue of it would, in the first place, have been futile. As the former colonial power, we were the worst placed to influence the problem. Nothing we could do would have been remotely likely to stop it. The resentment we would have caused would have gravely prejudiced our efforts to assist Zimbabwe in overcoming its problems. At stake was not only Zimbabwe's future, but the well-being, livelihoods, and even lives of thousands of British citizens.

It may be worth adding that nobody else did anything much either. Zimbabwe's churches, with the courageous exception of Archbishop Ncube, kept silent - see page 42 of this Saturday's "Times". It was not until 1997 that the report of the Catholic Commission for Peace and Reconciliation saw the light of day.

Everybody's efforts of course failed, and Zimbabwe is where it is. But I believe we were right at the time to make the effort.

Martin Ewans
London

After the elections, how close will Zimbabwe be to a civil war?

Robert Jenkins
Cwmbran

I am surprised at the strength of feeling for events that happened in 1983. It just goes to prove that the British people were as ignorant and badly informed as the politicians representing them in Zimbabwe. The facts were plain to see at the time and should not have been swept under the carpet. This excellent programme has ensured that those who would like to forget what happened, and even worse would wish to deny responsibility for decisions taken, find it difficult to do so. The current state of Zimbabwe says it all. Thank you to Fergal Keane.

GH

The developed world was persuaded that Imperialism was evil, because many bad things happened in the name of the empire. Good things happened too and I have lived with the direct benefits of colonialism in Zimbabwe for the first 21 years of my life (education, medicine, rule of law, public infrastructure maintained by a central government). The bad acts committed in the name of colonialism were so bad that Mugabe stole moral high ground early in his career and has maintained it ever since. An overwhelming, politically correct, colonial guilt complex exists in Britain today and colonialism is synonymous with evil.

British politicians feared being branded as colonialist so much that Mugabe literally got away with murder. Now Mugabe has lost support of the Western powers, he is dropping the guillotine that he has held over Britain for so long by calling Blair an evil imperialist. African leaders in their desire to be seen doing the politically correct thing (for Africans) are siding with Mugabe. I feel that the whole thing is very patronising, and that evil acts must be judged as evil acts. Judge actions rather than concepts. White Africans have always been the scapegoats whenever Mugabe bungles. African politicians should acknowledge the work many white Africans have done as a real contribution to society. Instead whites are consistently branded as a no-good historically advantaged group of people profiting at the expense of blacks. Many of my black friends also find this view stale and patronising and would rather take responsibility for their own lives and would rather work hard to become doctors, lawyers and bankers than blame someone else for their own shortcomings.

Brian
Oxford

I watched your programme with shock, horror and revulsion. I worked as a teacher in Mashonaland for two years in the 90s and am not at all surprised by these revelations. Just absolutely astounded by the callousness of the British Government, and obvious racial prejudice. I also challenge Chris from South Africa. His comments are deeply offensive to all those brave Zimbabweans who went out today and yesterday to protest in a democratic and peaceful way, despite severe provocations. The new South Africa demonstrates how painful and difficult it is to bring about change from tyranny. The transition is not perfect - there is no quick fix.

Christine Patterson
Belfast

I remember my father, Robert Dyer-Smith, a very just and deep-thinking man, talking about the atrocities committed by the Fifth Brigade that were rumoured to be happening in Matabeleland, I think in January 1983. He was very worried about the stories and contrasted the situation with the Germans who, after the war, said that they heard rumours about what was happening in the concentration camps but did nothing. On 16 March 1983 my father was abducted from his smallholding outside Bulawayo. This operation had been planned - he was set up two days earlier but the abductors hung around for two days waiting for him. Although the police were notified within two hours of his being marched away from the area and the army with dogs were combing the area in the following days, his body was only discovered one mile away on 2 September 1983. I have always believed that the information was only released as we were about to organise a massive information leaflet drop offering a large reward and it was expedient for the authorities to suddenly solve the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of my father as well as that of a grandfather and his son (abducted in January 1983). I have always believed that my father was murdered by Mugabe's men for political reasons although he was non-political and merely respected by both black and white as a man of honour who built bridges between the communities. A man was tried and convicted for his murder but I could not bring myself to go to the trial and in my heart of hearts think they manipulated the evidence.

Carolyn Dyer-Smith

Friends in Harare are saying that "They keep bussing in the government supporters and push them into the front of the queue so we don't get very far in the line". Are the official observers aware of this situation?

Craig Watkins
Edinburgh

Yes - Mugabe's leadership is a disgrace. Yes - Perence Shiri is likewise guilty of crimes against humanity. Should we really be surprised, though? Mugabe and Osama bin Laden today, Milosevic, Saddam and Qadafi yesterday, Ayatollah Khomeinei and Brezhnev the day before. In the great "cause and effect" of foreign policy and world affairs, the revelations of this programme are pretty obvious. However, it took courage and perseverance to expose them so clearly. One wonders where the next "revelations" will come from - pick an ex-colonial power in Africa or Asia and wait for the expose.

Brian
Dublin

I would just like to congratulate the BBC on a fine programme, furthermore for highlighting the atrocities in Zimbabwe. For too long this government has turned a blind eye to these evil killings. I hope now people will do something about it, even if this action is too late for many people.

Miss C Bishop
Wolverhampton

Fergal Keane's excellent programme rightly showed Robert Mugabe in his true colours: the Idi Amin of Southern Africa, an evil racist monster who should be standing trial at The Hague with his henchmen, not being glad-handed by European politicians past and present. One question: apart from a handful of brave clergy inside and outside Zimbabwe (notably the admirable Pius Ncube), why is it that the Christian churches have maintained a deafening silence in the face of mounting evidence of Mugabe's atrocities dating back many years? Does it have anything to do with the fact that they were very keen to install him in power in the first place?

Michael Mcgowan
London

A very interesting and overdue programme on a subject that has largely been ignored by Western Governments. It is time the Commonwealth flexed its "muscles" and took action against Mugabe. The time for dictators is over. Sanctions will have no effect on an already desperate country, as has happened in Iraq - it just strengthens the despot's position. It's time for an international court to indict Mugabe and send him to the next cell to Milosovic to stand trial for crimes against his own people. Once again Britain has much to be ashamed of.

Rob Middleton
Northampton

Having lived in Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, I am desperately sad about events in Zimbabwe. What can someone living in the UK today do to help the situation in Zimbabwe? I still think of Zim as my home, and would return tomorrow - if I knew my profession (teacher) could help in any way - but - white, female - I wouldn't be allowed in? Such a feeling of helplessness...

Sue
Hereford

It was disturbing to see where so-called "silent diplomacy" can lead to. The frustrating thing is that exactly the same mistakes are made again today. How about the cruelties committed by the Russians in Chechnya for example? Good relations are again more important than human rights. The action against Serbia was a very good example of how the West should deal with murderous regimes. We've got the power, we've got the opportunity and we've got the responsibility to ACT rather than just being bystanders. Sierra Leone has hopefully been a good exercise for inevitable future interventions on the African continent, eg Zimbabwe. The leaders of other African countries are being very quiet. The South African president especially should recognise his responsibilities. South Africa claims to be the regional power and the rest of the world would expect action from her behalf. By not taking a clear stance against Mugabe, Southern African leaders indirectly agree and become partly responsible. They naively damage their own economies by scaring away investment, as the current trouble of the Rand shows most clearly.

Lutz
Sheffield

Congratulations to the Panorama team and Fergal Keane for a truly informative program on Zimbabwe. I think we can all agree that Britain's policy of appeasement with Mugabe in the 80's was sickening. Instead of looking back in the past, it is essentially that Britain and the UN get involved immediately with Zimbabwe and bring this barbarian leader to justice for the slaughtering of his fellow people. He is corrupt, unfair and also discriminates against white people.

Alex
London

The British have no concern for Africans in Africa and only act when British citizens are threatened. There was nothing wrong with Mugabe killing 20,000 Ndebeles in cold blood but there was concern when Mugabe arrested a few white people. It's still the same now because they are only acting after Mugabe has murdered a few white farmers. What of all the other people he murdered? That's the British Government¿s position.

Isaya Mufiri
Newbury

I watched with great concern your programme on Zimbabwe. As a nation I thought we had learnt the lessons of history. Appeasement does not provide a solution. Thanks to the actions of our representatives, politicians and civil servants, I feel ashamed to be British. Mugabe and his supporters have blood on their hands but so do we through our sale of arms and inappropriate responses.

Russell
Aberystwyth

I've never cried at a documentary before. But what you achieved with your editor and director and especially your informants has moved me more than any other media report. Who knows how much a difference my tears in bloody Tokyo will make but still I have witnessed a glimpse of the terror those others endured and maybe that adds up to something. Brilliant job. Congratulations to you, your crew and especially your informants. I have a girlfriend who's thinking about her future career. After seeing your programme I'm going to tell her where she belongs: a place where she can offer her talents in the service of - for want of a better word - humanity.

Lee Frank
Tokyo

Those of us who lived in Zimbabwe during the Guerrilla War pre-independence will hardly be surprised at Mugabe's subsequent behaviour. We accepted black majority rule under Bishop Muzorewa. We knew Mugabe but at Lancaster House Lord Carrington bowed to pressure from Nkomo and Mugabe. I was shocked and disgusted tonight to hear Sir Geoffrey Howe saying the events in Matabeleland were a "small consideration". I have felt like weeping during the last two days when witnessing those people queuing for their vote and even now they may not get it! I agree that Britain should have taken action years ago and as for the Commonwealth and the EU - well, that's another story! The lovely people of Zimbabwe do not deserve this. I think Britain must ultimately bear residual responsibility for this.

Anon

Your programme was a real eye-opener for me. The blatant racist policies of past and present governments were clear from their lack of concern for the many thousands of victims. They were, and still are, only looking out for their own interests. I just hope that one day soon the Western World will get its act together and help the people of Zimbabwe to achieve enough freedom to live their lives without the constant threat of terror.

Elif Onur
Bournemouth

The Panorama programme moved me to tears. My thoughts go out to Thembi. Fergal Keane proved yet again what an amazing journalist he is.

Lucy
London

I lived in Zimbabwe during the Liberation Struggle and during the early years of independence. I worked in African Education, training teachers. I am appalled by the attitude of successive governments in dealing with the problems in Zimbabwe. Do our politicians not realise that Robert Mugabe has reduced his own country to begging for food when it was previously in excess of national demand? He has destabilised the economy of the whole of Southern Africa and is now drawing the entire Commonwealth into disrepute. It seems that Robert Mugabe has always been treated with kid gloves by the Foreign Office so is there some grand global scheme afoot that we do not know about?

Wendy & David Squair
Brighton

I am also a South African living here in the UK and have quite a few good friends still living in Zimbabwe. I wish to condemn what happened during the Apartheid years of South Africa, but I find it absolutely disgusting that the British Government and the rest of the Western World had the gall to criticise and turn South Africa into the pariah of the world during this troubled period in our history, yet turned a blind eye to the murder and rape of thousands of black Ndebele in Zimbabwe. It seems to me that the White oppression of the Blacks in South Africa was regarded as a more pressing matter then the Black oppression on their own kind. Both were wrong and should have been treated as such. Given the attitude of the British Government to Human Rights and oppression of minority groups by others, why was the Government not as critical of Mugabe and his henchmen as it was of the Apartheid Government of South Africa? Hopefully one day the British Government will learn from its mistakes and take a tougher stance against people such as Mugabe.

Antony
Hoddesdon

Congratulations to Fergal Keane on a long-overdue exposé of British inaction in the face of horrific atrocities.

Paul Taylor
Bulawayo

Will it ever be known if more votes are cast for the MDC than for Mugabe? Or does Mugabe have such a hold on things that the vote is virtual pointless ?

Jamie Charlesworth
London

Of course we knew all along that the British had something to do with Mugabe's actions in Matabeleland. It was no accident that there was that incident. The question that has to be answered is what prompted the British to encourage Mugabe in his murderous way or at least give its tacit approval by not speaking out?

G Moyo
Harare

A brilliant programme which addressed an important issue. This question goes beyond the specifics of events in the 1980s, but do you think there is still a reluctance amongst British diplomats and politicians to condemn the Mugabe government for its actions over the last few years? I think your programme was particularly timely. At a point when so-called "Western" values of freedom and democracy are being discussed in the media and elsewhere, I think it is good to be reminded that western governments are often not guided by such noble principles in their foreign policies.

Phil Rumney
Sheffield

What happened 20 years ago is disgusting and should never have happened, but that is now in the past. Not everyone is innocent, and Mugabe and his followers must not be allowed to get away with the intimidation and injustices that he is causing now. A change is needed and the lives of the people of Zimbabwe must be returned to normal. We need to be able to exercise our democratic rights, and above all, be able to earn a decent honest living and be able to feed our families again. Zimbabwe is a beautiful country and has beautiful people living here; unfortunately we are to pre-occupied with what is happening to be able to appreciate it.

Katinka Ruhe
Harare

I was surprised to hear both from the contributors and in the programme commentary that no-one seemed to realise Mugabe's intentions and thought he would be a beacon of democracy. With a handful of others, I heckled Lord Carrington at the Tory Party conference in 1979. We had the courage to denounce Mugabe as a "Marxist dictator" and advocated the recognition of the Smith-Muzorewa agreement to create Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. It might not have been perfect, but would have been better than the alternative. What is it about these people who get to the top that they will not listen at the time but later say "Oh we were wrong and now we must be tough"? I knew we would get nowhere in Yugoslavia when Carrington was involved there! I would like to see him interviewed on this and asked about that '79 speech.

Dave
UK

A special thank you to those involved in the programme. For so many years things have been hidden and it is good to see the truth coming out. I am a white female born in Zimbabwe and brought up there, and the things you reported although they do not surprise me shock me as to the fact that no-one stood up to this evil man. I have only one question for those people who say they could do nothing. I agree that the change will come from the people, but want to challenge you on something. You did not do nothing, you gave this man the wealth he now has when you gave him £57million plus. You gave him money to buy the arms to terrorise the people, to be able to kill all the thousands plus that he has already killed and will still go on killing. The people may have had a chance if you had not made him as powerful as he is now. For as long as I can remember we all got mad, because all these loans to the government never went to the people or the country but only into the pockets of the officials. Now you have given this monster the means to terrorise, you will not even publicly say that what he is doing is wrong, only that you had your reasons. I have been lucky to get out, I feel for the people who cannot get out. Yet again thanks for putting this on air, you may have spoken up where very few would.

Alison Franklin
London

Clearly, the Panorama programme has struck a chord. I was in South Africa in the mid-80s, living through the depths of the apartheid era when P W Botha was flailing about, up to his ears in the Rubicon. The British Conservative Government of the time was perceived as the staunchest ally of the besieged apartheid government. As one of the Panorama interviewees noted, the whole southern African region was a tinderbox, and South Africa's racist system was seen as the most serious problem in the subcontinent. The British Government of the time, in retrospect, was clearly institutionally racist, favouring the white minority SA regime over the disenfranchised black people of South Africa, and ignoring all evidence of the atrocities being waged by the Mugabe government upon its own people.

This begs the question - is the current British Labour government any less racist in its approach? Consider its active involvement in Serbia and Afghanistan (where European and American interests were concerned)versus its restraint in Zimbabwe, Israel, Kashmir... where Black, Arab and Indian interests are at stake.

The studied indifference, self-justification and dissimulation of former Conservative ministers and high commissioners on last night's Panorama left me feeling revolted. Mugabe's tyranny is self-evident. Britain has to take definitive action against the man. So, for that matter, do the other nations in the Commonwealth, whose tolerance of their brother's actions also beggars belief. Hypocrisy abounds.

Malcolm Hay
Yeovil

I just hope that justice will shine through the tyranny and brutality this evil man perpetuates.

Marcus
Gloucester

Yes certainly the British Government should have intervened even if they couldn't have changed the events for the good! So many power-hungry, blood thirsty despots in the world have been aided and abetted, unintentionally, by so many governments turning their backs on intolerance and persecution because it was expedient to so at the time! Our generation can't turn the clocks back on the sad, misguided judgements made before us, but it is our duty, either militarily or diplomatically, to show those tyrants still in power that they must go now. As for the Commonwealth, what a bunch of ineffective old women. Why didn't they act? After all, Mugabe might think that he's very clever but these "stealth-like" attacks on the Zimbabwean people, the press, the political opposition etc. are being carried out with as much grace and secrecy as a mad rh