Zimbabwe: 2007 till Mugabe resigns

[JMA]

...the Mugabe regime starts to pull bodies out of mine shafts.

I spent a lot of my time operating out of Mount Darwin in the mid 70s. The routine for insurgent KIA from every contact was to back-load the bodies by vehicle or helicopter to the police Special Branch in Mount Darwin so that the bodies could be photographed and fingerprinted. Civilians killed in the "cross-fire" were left in situ for burial in their respective villages.

As the body-count rose the logistics of disposal of these bodies became too great and there was local resistance to the burning of bodies out at the airfield (using expired/old/etc aircraft fuel) due to the smell. Anyone who has smelt bodies burning remembers that smell forever. I understand the solution was found when a local farmer suggested using the many old mine shafts in the area for the purpose.

The issue of the dignity of burial aside it is my understanding that is where the bodies were disposed of. In fact if they only found 1,000 bodies they should go look in some of the other mine shafts in the area.

Later in the war the recovery of all bodies became logistically impossible and the insurgent bodies were searched, stripped of usable military equipment and left in situ.

But the idea that Mugabe is attempting to sell here is that these were not the bodies of armed combatants but rather victims of some or other massacre. Those that want to believe this will believe it as they did during the war regardless of the facts.

... and I leave it to you to guess where the bodies found that are clearly not over 30 years old come from.


Mt Darwin mass graves contain fresh bodies: Pathologist

"Ordinarily by this time there should only be bone-remains if its true that these bodies are of people who died in the 70s," the pathologist said. "Certainly there should not be any smell at all from the remains over 30 years after those people died."

Who filled Mt Darwin mine with 1 000 human dead bodies?

The presence of some corpses still with skin, hair and body fluids has raised doubts over claims white colonial-era troops committed the massacres more than 30 years ago.