The ManicaPost
Cletus Mushanawani News Editor
THE exhumation of 300 remains of liberation war victims in Chiware, Rusape, brought relief to a 84-year-old Mutasa widow who for the past 44 years did not know the whereabouts of her missing daughter.
Even death could not separate two friends, Emilia Mangere and Susan Chamburuku, who both disappeared in 1976.
The two are set to be buried at their Kadzunge and Nyakatsapa villages today (Friday), bringing closure to the mystery behind their disappearance and subsequent deaths.
The pair’s remains are among those that were recently retrieved at Ardwell Mine in Chiware with the assistance of the Zimbabwe Fallen Heroes’ Trust, Department of National Museums and Monuments, traditional leaders, war veterans and Destiny of Mineral and Agricultural Consultants.
Emilia and Susan were positively identified as they were carrying their Rhodesian identification cards when they were killed and dumped in the Ardwell Mine Shaft.
In an interview on the sidelines of the reburial of some the 300 fallen heroes at Matumba Six or Herbert Mine near Old Mutare Mission yesterday, Emilia’s mother, Mrs Clara Mangere, said instead of grieving over the loss of her only daughter, the recovery of her remains brought her some much needed relief as she can now give her a decent burial.
“My daughter and her friend, Susan, were doing Grade Seven at Nyakatsapa Primary School and were also liberation war collaborators when we last saw them doing their war errands in 1976.
“Over the years, I have lost my husband and two sons but the pain of not knowing where my daughter was buried was continuously giving me nightmares.
“Even if I am to die today, I will rest peacefully in my grave because l would have seen her getting a decent burial,” she said while sitting next to the coffin carrying the remains of her daughter.
The exhumation process was quite an ardours task as it took more than two years for it to be completed.
At one time, the process had to be abandoned after 107 bodies had been exhumed due to policy flaws as well as lack of resources.
Among the remains, 128 were successfully moulded into whole bodies and were buried in different graves, while the remaining 172 were buried in a mass grave. Chief exhumer, Mr Anyway Chinyani said they were guided by the spirits of the departed cadres to help them positively identify and join their remains.
He said some of them even provided contact details of their relatives, who were also part of the reburial gathering.
Yesterday’s reburials bring to 397 the total number of fallen heroes that have been buried at Matumba Six, thereby prompting calls for the shrine to be given a national status.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba said there is need to accord the shrine national status as part of preserving the liberation struggle’s history which is slowly dying with those who participated in the struggle.
“We need to document our history of the liberation struggle for the sake of our children.
“We are still expecting more reburials here and we call upon the responsible authorities to accord this shrine a national status.
“We are grateful that some families have managed to reunite with their loved ones after so many years of trying to get leads of where they were buried,” she said.
In a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, Cde Mike Madiro, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said the dumping of human remains at Ardwell Mine reminds the nation of the horrors of Chibondo in Mt Darwin and the Butcher Site in Rusape, where thousands of remains have since been exhumed and reburied.
Most of the victims were court marshalled before being shot to death for their role in supporting the liberation war.
“The reburials we are conducting today will not be the last.
“We know that there are other places across the country with liberation war reburials that require our attention so that they become respectable final resting places for the war dead.
“To successfully deal with future cases, it is Government’s observation that a policy framework to guide this work must be put in place.
“In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage has drafted a Liberation War Mass Graves and Human Remains Management Policy whose three main goals are to improve the management, preservation and protection of mass graves, to enhance the documentation, exhumation, identification and reburial procedures of deceased victims of the liberation struggle and to accord recognition, decent burial, reburial and closure of certain persons killed during the struggle,” said Minister Kazembe.
