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. 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.
A transcript of the interview can be found here.
A report on the 1980's deistunances in Matabeleland & the Midlands in Zimbabwe complied by the Cathlic Commission of Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (March 1997) and be found here.
Source: BBC
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