Government looking for land for mass burial, after killing 78 miners

Government looking for land for mass burial, after killing 78 miners

After issuing statements denying that scores of people were murdered in the
Chiadzwa diamond fields in Manicaland province, the truth finally came out
on Thursday when the District Administrator for Mutare appealed to the City
Council for land to bury 83 people.

The Deputy Mayor for Mutare, Admire Mukovera, confirmed receiving a phone
call from the DA Mr Mashava, requesting land for a mass burial. He was told
that 78 people had been killed in the volatile diamond minefield, while five
had died from cholera. The Deputy Mayor said bodies were piling up in
mortuaries at Mutare General and Sakubva District hospitals.

The DA claimed the mass burial was necessitated by the fact that the bodies
from Chiadzwa were mixed up with cholera victims, and they were trying to
stop the spread of the disease.

However, the predominantly MDC led Mutare City Council has refused, saying
it was a national issue and the government has to issue a public statement
first, which would also notify the relatives of the deceased.

The MDC spokesperson for Manicaland and Makoni South MP Pishai Muchauraya,
believes the Mugabe regime is trying to conceal its 'murderous actions' by
burying the people it slaughtered in the mining fields in a mass grave.

He said: "The council must not give them ground until the facts and figures
are made public and the circumstances surrounding the murder of those 83
people are known."

It is feared many more were killed during the campaign of terror unleashed
on illegal diamond miners by soldiers and the police, as warlords battle for
control.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has described the areas as "resembling a
war" and the miners say hundreds have died. One report said a policewoman
working in Chiadzwa saw a pile of 50 bodies after one helicopter attack.
"There were a lot of bodies. They were piled up. I don't know what happened
to them. Some of the dead are just buried secretly," she said. "Miners are
killed every day. The orders to the police are to shoot them if they find
them digging but many of the police do not want to carry out those orders.
These are ordinary people like us."