ZANU PF MPs stormed out of parliament on Tuesday after an MP said the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide in the Matabeleland region should be investigated along with the June 2008 election violence.

Bulawayo East MP Thabitha Khumalo (MDC-T) rose to second a motion by her party’s chief whip Innocent Gonese, calling for the establishment of a cross-party committee to investigate violence that marred the presidential election run-off.

The MDC said over a 100 of its supporters were abducted and killed by alleged militants from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party. The party cited violence as the major reason for withdrawing its candidate Morgan Tsvangirai from the run-off which Mugabe claimed with a landslide.

Khumalo suggested the committee could go a step further and examine Mugabe’s deployment of an especially trained army unit to Matabeleland soon after independence.

Rights groups say over 20,000 people, mainly supporters of his chief rival Joshua Nkomo, were killed and thousands more driven away from their homes.

That sparked an angry protest from Zanu PF chief whip Joram Gumbo who told parliament: “It is regrettable that we are discussing the issue of what happened in 2008 today.

“You (Speaker, Lovemore Moyo) as our leader you said history can be used. I was of the opinion that if we start narrating our history from 1896 during the Shona-Ndebele war and those that followed, we cannot live in harmony.”

Gumbo further protested against what he saw as Speaker Lovemore Moyo’s bias towards his MDC-T party before urging Zanu PF MPs to walk.

Gonese said the establishment of a probe committee, which was opposed by Zanu PF MPs, would augment national healing programmes, not cause a new flare up of violence.

"At the end of the day,” he told MPs before the walk-out by Zanu PF, “we are calling for the setting up of a parliamentary select committee. This is a bi-partisan committee which will comprise members from the liberation party which is Zanu PF, members from the people's party, which is the party of the future the Movement for Democratic Change, and our other brothers that is MDC. No one should fear because this will comprise all of us in this August House.

“Only the guilty are afraid, only if you know that you are partly responsible or you participated in the orchestration of this event.

“It is clear that after March 29, this violence did not just happen -- it was orchestrated. There was a hidden hand somewhere and this emerged quite clearly with the use of vehicles. Most vehicles like the Mahindra and the CAM, we all know who can have access to such vehicles."

Warren Park MP Elias Mudzuri (MDC-T) claimed violence had resurfaced in rural areas, and blamed Zanu PF militants.

He told parliament: “As we are speaking, this spirit of violence is being revised in the rural areas. There was a slogan which was used in the June elections, that is the MAZDA slogan, which is being used now. MAZDA stands for Mugabe Achatonga Dzamara Afa,"