Well said, Greenwich (in your first post). We in matabeleland were all so deeply shocked when the world, faced with the evidence, incredibly chose to ignore the matabele massacres by Mugabe of the 1980s, while they were being carried out and for some time afterwards. This fact, and the honours bestowed on Mugabe since then have been stomache-turning for most Zimbabweans.

Re. your second point, perhaps (in some cases), there should be more separate countries, or federal states. If Matabeleland and Mashonaland, for example, had been separated into two autonomous(?) states, each with their own sovereignty, the massacres might have been avoided. Certainly, Mugabe would not have got away with what he did then in quite the same way...