Harare - The Zimbabwean President, Mr Robert Mugabe, yesterday offered a first, though muted apology for a government crackdown that killed thousands of minority Ndebele tribesmen in the 1980s and appealed for national unity.
Addressing about 80,000 mourners at the burial of the liberation war hero, Joshua Nkomo, Mr Mugabe also pledged to look into any grievance that Mr Nkomo's native Ndebele people might have.
Mr Nkomo, one of Mugabe's two vice presidents, died last Thursday aged 83, sparking widespread speculation that his death might lead to renewed tension between the Ndebeles and Mr Mugabe's majority Shona-dominated ruling ZANU-PF party, which Mr Nkomo had helped ease.
Political analysts say Mr Nkomo - who towered over Zimbabwean black politics for over half a century, earning him the name Umdala Wethu, "Our Old Man" - had a calming influence over Ndebeles' bitterness towards the government.
Mr Nkomo spearheaded the struggle for black majority rule but came second to Mr Mugabe in polls when the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980.