BULAWAYO – The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has apologised and distanced itself from its commissioner Obert Gutu, who sparked outrage last week after calling Gukurahundi “a small tiny fraction” of the commission’s mandate.

Gutu, a former top MDC official-turned Zanu PF zealot, told a news conference last week that the mass murder of 20,000 people in Midlands and Matabeleland regions by the government of the late deposed president Robert Mugabe in the 1980s was not on the front burner for the Chapter 12 institution as it had many other issues to deal with.

“It’s a pity that normally people look at the commission as only dealing with one issue of Gukurahundi. I think Gukurahundi is just a small, tiny fraction of the various other disputes we are talking about,” Gutu remarked, apparently diminishing the gravity of the emotive matter.

The fallout was fast – and furious, with many people demanding his removal from the healing commission, forcing NPRC chairman Selo Nare, a retired judge, to gavel commissioners into session to express his disappointment.

Gukurahundi, Nare said in an apology to the nation, was “a serious conflict” that remained the Number 1 priority for his institution.

“Following that statement, I had a meeting with the commissioners and I expressed my displeasure over the words that were used that Gukurahundi is a ‘small tiny fraction’ of the issues that are being dealt with by the commission,” he told the Chronicle newspaper on Tuesday.

Nare added: “In my view, and in the view of the commission, those words, ‘small tiny fraction of the issues,’ were his sentiments. The commission’s view and my view is that Gukurahundi is a serious conflict that needs to be handled properly.

“So, on behalf of the commission, I apologise for those sentiments and I apologise to the nation for the words. The Gukurahundi issue has been dealt with as the Number 1 conflict in particular in this region.”

Emphasizing, Nare continued “It cannot be said in no uncertain terms that the Gukurahundi issue can be a small tiny fraction of issues that we are dealing with. It is our Number 1 issue when we look at the issues that we are dealing with.”

Human rights campaigners and survivors of the massacres that targeted mainly unarmed civilians – characterized by some as a genocide – want atonement, not least by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, one of the surviving government officials blamed for Gukurahundi.