Former Zimbabwe Leader Denied Hero�s Burial
The
Advocate, November 19, 2003
Zimbabwe�s government has refused a hero�s burial to
the country�s first black president, Canaan Sodindo Banana, citing his
conviction for homosexual offenses, officials said Tuesday. President Robert
Mugabe�s elite policymaking body, the 30-member politburo, decided Monday
that Banana would not receive a state funeral at Hero�s Acre cemetery
outside the capital, Harare. The politburo �could not accord Banana hero
status as a matter of principle,� spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira told state
radio. Banana set a �bad example to youth� with his 1998 conviction for
homosexual offenses against junior statehouse staff, Shamuyarira said.
Banana will instead receive a state-assisted funeral
�befitting a former head of state,� with full military honors in his
birthplace, Esigodini, outside the western provincial capital of Bulawayo, he
said. The date has yet to be announced.
Banana, who served as the country�s ceremonial
president from March 1980 until the end of December 1987, died last week in
London after a long illness. He was 67. Mugabe paid tribute to him, calling
him a �rare gift to the nation.�
Exposure of Banana�s alleged crimes embarrassed the
regime in 1997, coming within months of Mugabe�s denunciation of homosexuals
as �lower than pigs or dogs� and his appeal to Zimbabweans to turn
homosexuals over to police. The country�s high court heard evidence that
Mugabe�s politburo was party to a 17-year cover-up of Banana�s activities.
Banana was eventually sentenced to 10 years imprisonment but served only six
months in a newly constructed �open prison,� which allowed him shopping
trips to Harare. He continued to deny that he was gay and denounced the
allegations as �a mortuary of lies.�
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