A reconciliation process has been launched by Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa regarding the massacres carried out by government forces in the 1980s.
Survivors will be able to testify in a series of public hearings led by 72 local leaders, which may ultimately compensate victims in an attempt to ease tensions in the country.
Today is the day when we show that our country is capable of resolving our conflicts as Zimbabweans, regardless of their complexity or scope, said Mnangagwa in the country's second-largest city, Bulawayo.
The so-called Gukurahundi massacre took place over 40 years ago during the country's first president Robert Mugabe and only a few years after the state of Zimbabwe was formed.
Mugabe used soldiers trained in North Korea to crack down on opposition from mainly the Ndebele minority group in southwestern Zimbabwe. According to human rights organizations, up to 20,000 people are estimated to have been killed.
