Rusape’s butcher camp relived

gets a heavy heart as he narrates what happened to the bulk of people lying in the shallow graves at the Castle Kopje farm in Rusape.

 

I can recall him vividly saying “The captured revolutionary fighters, Mujibhas and Chimbwidos after being sentenced to death at a make-shift Marshal Court at the camp would be brought here for execution. Still in leg chains, the comrades would be hanged using the butcher hooks by the chin, raised up above these bunkers as shooting targets.

“There was a machine like a crane here that would be used to lift the human target. While in that position the trainee Rhodesian soldiers, white women whose husbands had gone on call up and young males from school being taught how to use a gun would be asked to hit different parts of the targets until the body was dismembered.

“The commander of the execution behind the cement bunker would shout out different targets and shooters hitting the targets. After taking on targets like the lower leg, upper leg, hips, the hands, the trainee shooters would then be asked to hit the head or the left side of the heart. The dismembered body would them be lowered down and the process repeated until those convicted were finished,” he added.

The Rhodesian soldiers would command those awaiting trial to carry the bodies, dig those shallow graves and dump the bodies into the shallow pits. As if that was not enough they would either inject the bodies with a tissue eating chemical or burn them using a highly flammable liquid. The fire and the acid helped in decomposing the bodies of the victims faster that even the strongest parts of the body, were eaten up.

After the burial the war collaborators were given hard brooms and a borehole at the execution chamber would be provided with water to clean the blood.

The blood would then flow through a tunnel to a pool near the road to the site. Standing beside the pool of blood now is a huge tree that was watered by the blood of the victims.

To destroy the evidence those who would have partaken in the cleaning and burial of the victims would also be shot and thrown into the mass graves. A road was even constructed above the graves as a way of concealing evidence but owing to heavy rains the remains have been exposed.

Those practicing shooting also needed moving targets and again the kangaroo court would provide them. It was simple; the court officials would lie to the women and men that they were being set free. The “freed” individuals had to take the route towards a hill on the farm or the castle, through undulating ground to “escape’’ from the soldiers who were stationed on the western side of the make-shift court.

The trainee gunmen and women would take positions waiting for the targets. The “free” women and men would be told of their release, say their prayers in a minute and bolt out of the courtroom only to be shot for target practice by the trainee soldiers, white boys and women. That is how many people, believed to number in thousands met their end at the farm. Their crime was asking for their freedom, their birthright, the land and equal opportunities that we enjoy in abundance now.

Eye witnesses say that was a daily occurrence at the notorious Castle Camp in Rusape. Although it is yet to be established exactly which regiment of Smith’s army was stationed in the town, it is believed a battalion of the Selous Scouts was housed at the camp of death.

The camp had a prison and two court rooms where the captured freedom fighters were locked and tried in leg irons. At first the operations of the Selous Scouts were concentrated in the Mabvuzuva suburb before they were moved Castle Farm to run away from suspecting residents. The residential area had been established for sell-outs who sought protection and were running away from the villages after they had been identified by the people.

The majority of the victims of the notorious unit were dumped in two pits in the residential area. The pits will be the next port of call for the exhuming team lead by the Zimbabwe Fallen Heroes Trust.

Unfortunately Rusape Town Council, in its wisdom or lack of it, has allocated housing stands in the area and people are constructing houses on top of the mass graves. Most of residents of the new stands have, however, reported strange happenings that have made the homes inhabitable.

ZFHT is seeking to give a proper burial to the hundreds of freedom fighter, and povo that were slain by the Smith’s Regime during the height of the liberation struggle as an honour for their sacrifices for the liberation of Zimbabwe and promise that had given each other during the bitter war of independence. In fact despite lack of support from both Government and people the exhumations are going on well and so far 114 bodies have been exhumed and they are still counting.

Eyewitness of this brutal attack on a people searching for freedom, have come in handy identifying some of the mass graves.

The hope is that the victims will have a decent reburial and a memorial erected at the execution fields as a reminder of the pain and sacrifices many had to endure and make on the road to independence.

The victims of the camp came from across the country. Identified cases came from Hurungwe, Mt Darwin, Bulawayo and Mozambique while the bulk of the executed people could have come from within Rusape district, Wedza, Odzi and Buhera areas that fell under the base operations. So desperate to win the war was the Smith regime that they even brutally executed civilians alleged to be supporting freedom fighters in the area.

The victims at the site are middle-aged men and women and young people all believed to have died between 1977 and 1979. The youngest victim of this brutality is a child estimated to have been three years old. His or her crime was being with mothers when they were captured. That is how brutal this regime which sought to prevent the majority rule in the country was.

Zimbabwe Fallen Heroes Trust deputy chief exhumer Cde Takesure Danga said they would not rest until all the freedom fighters were either united with their followers or got decent reburials.

He said the fallen comrades had their wishes but they were destroyed in the fight to liberate the people and the only way that Zimbabweans can honour their sacrifice was to give them a decent burial people in a free Zimbabwe.

“This requires the support of everyone regardless political parties. These people knew not of MDC or any other party. They only knew of Zapu and Zanu-PF. Yes after independence there are were other parties but all are a result of the freedom that sacrificed their lives for hence the need for everyone to bring their heads and support the reburial programme.

“The history of Castle Camp is sad but at the same time exhibits with tangible evidence the Smith regime’s brutality. The freedom fighters showed great love and resolve to liberate the people hence the need for us the beneficiaries to return them the love by affording them a proper burial,” Cde Bunjira said.

National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe eastern region director, Dr Paul Mpira said it has been easy to ascertain that a mass grave has both freedom fighters and civilians using the clothing and personal belongings found with the bodies.

“Some of the victims were buried with coins, pennies, oil pens used to clean the guns, the popular brown and green sting and stripped camouflage used in the eastern countries that supported the liberation struggle and sometimes belts that carried bullets. Some of the victims have worn the hunter shoes that were used by the freedom fighters and super pro shoes that were popular before independence. What we are sure of is that the bodies could have been injected by a chemical to aid deterioration. Whatever was used even destroyed teeth and the skull. This is the beginning of research to establish and document the history of the camp.

“There is no systematic burial in the graves. Some bodies were buried in body packs while others were only covered by plastic or blankets. The highest number found in one grave is 15 people although the average number of victims in any grave is six bodies,” he said.

The exhumations will culminate in the reburial of the comrades and erection of a memorial at the site to be dedicated to the comrades slaughtered at the hands of the Smith regime.

That is the greatest honour that the fallen heroes can be accorded.

It is important for Zimbabweans from all walks of life to remember that the comrades shed their blood for a worthwhile cause, a cause that we should guard jealously. The blood that was spilled at places like Castle Camp, Chibondo, Chimoio is the reason why people should cherish the freedom and sovereignty that we enjoy today. So when we enjoy the land let us not forget of the immense sacrifices that sons and daughters, brothers and sisters gave to see black people get their inheritance that had been taken by the colonizers.

In deed the most touching site is the Butcher or Slaughter Chamber where even a white grade seven pupil had the right and confidence to kill in the name of the war. The events that took place at the camp were brutal and evil and should remind us of the importance of freedom we enjoy today.

What is most painful is the fact that the Rhodesians are still unrepentant. A few years ago they were back at the Butcher Chamber to destroy evidence. Evidence is there that they came in the dead of the night, plastered the wall that bore the names of the Rhodesian soldiers that commanded the executions. As fate could have it, not all the names were rubbed off as names like Major William Combs and Colonel James remain scribbled on the walls of the execution chamber, the Castle Camp butcher chamber.

As the country celebrates 33 years of hard won independence it is important that we take time to reflect on the road to freedom. It is a time that we should remember the sacrifices made by the gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe who laid their lives for the emancipation of kinsmen. It’s a time of reflecting on the unity that drove the people of Zimbabwe to brave enemy bullets in drive for towards independence.

We got the independence and let us guard it jealously.

As one visitor to the site said this is the height of evil. It shows how evil and brutal the Rhodesian forces were. They hated the black men’s call for independence to a point of sprinkling someone acid pouring and burning the dead bodies to ensure that the comrades were totally destroyed.