The silence and the lack of discussion of this subject subsequently in the meeting can be taken as signal that the meeting agreed with this line of thought or the audience was totally dumbfounded by this position.

If anyone had been in any doubt as to how serious the "real MDC" is about this position, they only had to listen to Morgan Tsvangirai refer to "nyaya yaRobert" – this Mugabe problem. It was clear at that point Biti was not grandstanding at a political rally but that the party had been through some serious soul searching before taking this position.

To borrow Martin Luther King’s words – the people of Zimbabwe are about to be written a bad cheque. In this case the bad cheque is being written by the MDC and not Zanu PF as has been the case all along. The gross violation of human rights in Zimbabwe is not a Mugabe problem, it is a national problem. Indeed Mugabe maybe the chief architect but has not acted alone. Further more, as has been clear over the last few years, the violation of human rights has not been monopolised by Zanu PF but has been accepted and traded as a political commodity within the opposition parties.

Human rights violations in Zimbabwe are not "a Mugabe issue" that can be easily sacrificed on the table of political expediency. Zimbabwe’s destination will be determined by the path that it takes. The path littered with accommodating mass murderers, turning blind eyes, short term gains, rewarding and abating political, social and economic violence does not lead to a Zimbabwe that we will want to bequeath to future generations.

What the people in the United Kingdom were told over the weekend was this grand scheme to reward Mugabe and his cronies for all the evil that they have visited on Zimbabwe.

It is instructive to note that this has not been always the position of the original MDC. Up until 2005, the MDC took the position that in a new Zimbabwe there would have to be some accountability for all the gross violations that have occurred in Zimbabwe.

The change in the official position to been taken after the internal conflicts within the MDC that have brought to light gross and chilling information and evidence on the use of violence within the opposition. What a spooky coincidence.

To further aggravate the situation, this announcement of such national importance in far away foreign lands was strange enough. To the villagers in Bindura who have endured the brutality of the green bombers it will be a harrowing pronouncement. To the old men and women who lost all their wares in the clean up operation it will shatter whatever hopes they held of some redemption for all they have had to endure. For the hundreds of thousands of people in Matabeleland whose relatives perished under the blade of Robert Mugabe's forces – their human rights cheque has just been returned marked INSUFFIENT FUNDS.

Without doubt Tendai Biti is a brilliant lawyer but his argument, if ever there was one on this case, was weak to say the least. His star witness Morgan Tsvangirai did him no favours either to buttress the case.

There is a whole coterie of people who will and must account for human rights violations in Zimbabwe. This is not ‘nyaya yaRobert’ it is about Zimbabwe. It is about how we prepare this beautiful country so that its citizens live without the fear because of political orientation, origin, ethnicity, and background, the colour of their skin or their sexuality. People also need to know that those who abuse their offices or positions of authority will be held to account for their actions.

There is an inherent problem of creating a solution to fit an individual and not a context. How will the likes of Perence Shiri, Elliot Manyika and Joseph Chinotimba be visited by justice for the crimes they have committed when other villains are accommodated just for the sake of political expediency.

People like Mrs Chiminya, the Olds family, Cain Nkala’s wife, Nabanyama’s relatives and the thousands of people in Matabeleland and Midlands expect some closure from the trials and tribulations that they have had to endure.

This closure will not be delivered by the Biti/Tsvangirai option. Biti cannot forgive on behalf of the people because he doesn't have such a mandate, for he never felt nor shared their pain.

Bekithemba Mhlanga is a Zimbabwean journalist and writes from West Sussex, London. He can be contacted at: bekithemba68@yahoo.com
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