This article calls for the location of victimhood rather than political convenience at the centre of Zimbabwe’s peace-building matrix. From the attainment of independence in 1980 to the military assisted end of President Robert Mugabe’s rule in November 2017, Zimbabwe’s episodic cycles of violence were concluded through elite bargained amnesty ordinances, state mediated reconciliation pronouncements and clemency orders that unconditionally benefitted perpetrators at the expense of victims. The forgive-and-forget ethic central to these routine and fractional peace building measures, I argue, not only disregarded the rule of law but negated victimhood and rendered justice divisible. Victims of politically motivated violence could not secure redress through the courts of law against amnestied perpetrators as this would amount to double jeopardy. The government withheld prosecutorial justice against perpetrators and disregarded reparations for victims. Within the national legislative framework ordinary legislators could not move motions compelling the government to compensate survivors of violence because only the vice-presidents and ministers could move motions that had the consequence of either depleting state revenues or causing the imposition of additional taxes on citizens. Considering that ministers who had the prerogative to move such motions served in cabinet at the behest of their intractable president they could hardly embarrass or contradict their principal. Essentially, the Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwean government established legal firewalls for perpetrators of politically motivated violence which ipso facto invalidated the quest for justice by victims of the country’s ever recurring cycles of violence. This authoritarian legalism disregarded victimhood and emboldened human rights violators.

这篇文章呼吁在津巴布韦建设和平矩阵的中心定位受害者，而不是政治便利。从 1980 年获得独立到 2017 年 11 月罗伯特·穆加贝总统在军事协助下结束统治，津巴布韦的暴力事件循环通过精英讨价还价的大赦条例、国家调解的和解声明和宽大令结束，无条件地使犯罪者受益，牺牲受害者为代价. 我认为，这些例行的和部分的和平建设措施的核心是宽恕和忘记伦理，不仅无视法治，而且否定了受害者，并使正义可分割。出于政治动机的暴力行为的受害者无法通过法院获得对被赦免的肇事者的补救，因为这将构成双重危险。政府拒绝对肇事者提起公诉，也无视对受害者的赔偿。在国家立法框架内，普通立法者不能提出动议，迫使政府赔偿暴力幸存者，因为只有副总统和部长才能提出动议，这些动议会导致国家财政收入枯竭或对公民征收额外税款。考虑到有权提出此类动议的部长们是按照他们顽固的总统的要求在内阁中任职的，他们很难让他们的校长感到尴尬或矛盾。从本质上讲，罗伯特穆加贝领导的津巴布韦政府为出于政治动机的暴力行为的肇事者建立了法律防火墙，就事实而言，该国不断重复的暴力循环的受害者寻求正义的努力无效。这种威权主义的法制主义无视受害者，并鼓励侵犯人权者。