5. GUKURAHUNDI AND STATELESSNESS 5.1 STATE-SANCTIONED VIOLENCE After 10 years of the liberation war, marked by problems and divisions between the Mugabe-led ZANU-PF and the Nkomo-led ZAPU parties, Zimbabwe was a divided nation at independence in 1980.38 Tensions led to an eruption of violence between forces of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), the respective military wings of ZANU-PF and ZAPU. By early 1982 authorities were cracking down with extreme violence on gangs of dissidents, mainly from ZIPRA forces in Matabeleland.39 Special forces of the Zimbabwe National Army Fifth Brigade were deployed who carried out atrocious attacks against not only the dissidents but also ZAPU officials and unarmed civilian supporters.40 The political tensions spilled into mass atrocities against the Ndebele people and an estimated 20,000 civilians were killed. Thousands were tortured and abducted, women raped and homes destroyed. The strategy - known as operation Gukurahundi - aimed to silence political opposition and create a climate of fear. Throughout 1983 and 1984 Amnesty International documented political killings of civilians by the army during its operations against armed groups in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.41 The persecution placed many at risk of statelessness, since without their parents’ death certificates they could not produce evidence of their Zimbabwean nationality. Death certificates for people killed in the Gukurahundi operation were not issued, meaning that those who were orphaned as a result of the violence had no way of proving their parents’ nationality. Related factors leading to statelessness, particularly for descendants of the Gukurahundi victims, include the loss of birth records. Many no longer had these because of displacement, demolition or burning of homes, births outside registered clinics or hospitals, births as a result of rape and birth in a foreign country for some who fled during the disturbances. Others whose parents died or disappeared were issued with death certificates with incorrect information, including falsification of circumstances of their deaths, thereby making it difficult for them to access their birth records. 38 CCJP Breaking the silence, Building true peace: Summary Report page 7-8. CCJP Breaking the Silence, Building true peace, Summary Report 40 CCJP Report n 67 above. 41 Open letter from Amnesty International to His Excellency the President Robert Mugabe concerning the need for public discussion and action on the disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/156000/afr460021997en.pdf 39 WE ARE LIKE “STRAY ANIMALS” THOUSANDS LIVING ON THE MARGINS DUE TO STATELESSNESS IN ZIMBABWE Amnesty International 16