The North Korean football team wil be flying into a political storm as survivors of the post independence massacres in Zimbabwe will do anything in their power to stop the team's visit. 
 
By Thabo Kunene
 
The government of President Mugabe last week announced that they agreed on hosting and training the North Korean football team in Zimbabwe. But human rights activists, church leaders, soccer fans and survivors of the massacres have all warned the North Koreans to expect massive protests if they try to stage matches in Matabelaland especially Bulawayo, the capital of the province. 
 
The Five Brigade
North Korea trained Zimbabwe's notorious army unit in the 1980's, the Five Brigade which carried out the massacres of more than 20.000 people from ethnic minorities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. 
  
Most of the victims were supporters of the then opposition ZAPU party led by Joshua Nkomo who was Mugabe's ally during Zimbabwe's struggle for independence. Many died in detention and at the concentration camps run by the soldiers, while thousands more disappeared. 
 
Mugabe later described the massacres as an act of madness by his government, but refused to apologise to the victims. Human rights lawyers in 2000 threatened to take Mugabe to the International Criminal Court for sanctioning the massacres. 
 
According to Tourism Minister Walter Muzembi, the government had invited five teams but only North Korea accepted the offer to train in Zimbabwe as part of their preparations for the World Cup.
 
Australia, England, Mexico, and the United States declined the offer.

Eye witnesses
According to Political Analyst, Sikhumbuzo Dube, Zimbabweans are very welcoming and friendly people but you can not invite a country which provided weapons to an army unit that almost wiped out a nation.
  
"We will try and convince them to go and see hundreds of mass graves containing the remains of our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who were slaughtered by the Five Brigade", adds Dube.
 
Dumisani Mpofu, a resident of Bulawayo, says the people of Matabeleland have nothing against the players themselves but the issue is with their government. Mpofu was an eye witness when the Five Brigade arrived in his village Mtshabezi in 1984. "The soldiers rounded up villagers and put them in one hut and set it on fire. People in the hut tried to come out but they were met with rifle fire from the soldiers . It was cruel, the kind of things you see in a movie." 
 
Samkeliso Ncube was 15 years when the brigade carried out the massacres. She lost her uncle, a teacher at Siganda school in Lupane district. "The Five Brigade soldiers arrived at the school and ordered all the teachers to dig their own graves before they were all shot at point blank range."
 
"After loosing my uncle and other villagers, the government now brings the North Korean team to our city. This is an insult to those who lost their lives and to their families", claims Ncube, who now works for an NGO in Bulawayo.
 
Government's invitation
Football administrators have not commented on the controversy surrounding the government's invitation of the North Korean team. One official at the Zimbabwe Football Association - ZIFA told Radio Netherlands Worldwide the association's hands were tied because it was the government that extended the invitation to the North Korean team.
 
The team is scheduled to play the Zimbabwe national team in Harare and Bulawayo.