Zimbabwe: The 'Butcher' - Where Freedom Fighters Perished
22 October 2009
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Harare — POSSESSED spirit mediums cry in agony as they climb a hill at Rusape Heroes Acre on a hot Thursday morning.
Former liberation war fighters and members of the Fallen Heroes Exhumers (FHE) form a beeline and sing revolutionary songs while following at a distance.
The spirit mediums suddenly stop to indicate that the journey has ended and chief exhumer Cde Jimmy Motsi, a veteran of the liberation struggle kneels to remove rocks on the identified spot.
He unearths the skull of liberation struggle fighter Cde Simbi Mubako Chiripai of Rushinga under Chief Magaranhewe who was captured from Mandeya 2 detachment by Rhodesian forces in 1978.
Cde Motsi raises the skull for everyone to see and the spirit mediums who had calmed down fall into another trance.
One-by-one, they fall onto the rocky ground in a similar fashion while others take long deep breaths.
Calm returns when songs that include "Kune nzira dzemasango dzokuzvibata nadzo" are repeatedly hummed.
"In 1978, Rhodesian forces butchered this boy for trying to liberate Zimbabwe. He is among many other freedom fighters who were mercilessly killed at this place. It was known as the 'Butcher' because of the gory murders that took place here.
"Many sons and daughters of Zimbabwe died inhumanely at this place, which is now Rusape Heroes Acre," said Cde Motsi who was known as Kerurai Mabhunu during the liberation struggle.
He said he is a prophet and started prophesying in 1968 while in the United Apostolic Faith Church.
He then narrated the events leading to the death of Cde Simbi.
He said upon being captured, Cde Simbi was immediately taken to F1 Firing Batallion in Rusape where he appeared before a Court Martial, but was "forgiven his crime".
The FI Firing battalion housed the Court Martial and was known as the "Butcher" not because meat was sold there, but because Rhodesian forces mercilessly killed freedom fighters at that spot.
Selous Scouts told Cde Simbi to run as fast as he could to avoid being caught and sentenced to death, but little did he know that he was being tricked.
As soon as he started running away, Rhodesian forces hiding behind large rocks shot him and he staggered into a bushy area.
With his flesh, perforated by gunshots, an exhausted Cde Simbi sat between some rocks and bled to death.
Said Cde Motsi: "When people talk of national healing, I don't know who should first be healed. Should we not first heal the father and mother of this fighter who has been lying in the wilderness for 34 years.
"His parents have been looking for him for all these years and they did not get anything since they gave us their son?"
Cde Motsi is again interrupted by weeping spirit mediums who continue falling to the ground.
"They (fallen heroes) come out crying like this everytime we exhume remains of their fellow freedom fighters. They want national healing, which should start with them. It's now 28 years after independence but their bones are still scattered everywhere. Even the children we buried in Chimoio are crying to come home.
"All the political violence last year was not Zanu-PF or MDC's fault. It was caused by the children lying here," he said.
Cde Motsi said they would leave the skull where they found it and only remove it once they get resources.
Cde Simbi's legs were found and identified three kilometres away from the skull.
Cde Motsi said his organisation carries out research whenever spirit mediums lead them to some remains.
"The spirit mediums get possessed by the spirit of the dead ex-combatants who reveal where they came from, when they went for military training, in which areas they operated, how and when they were killed and where their remains lie.
"We look for people who operated in the mentioned area during the war and ask them if they were with such a person. We then look for the person's family and tell them the news," he said.
He said no DNA tests are conducted, as there are no resources.
After exhuming the skull, the search party headed for a large trench where Mbuya Regina Dota (70) whose son disappeared during the liberation struggle narrated the gory incidents she witnessed at the "Butcher" while looking for him.
"This trench is sacred as bodies of liberation struggle fighters were dumped here and covered in acid. I saw this with my own eyes while I was going to the hospital one day and walked past a tent near Evergreen.
"I saw hundreds of dead bodies piled while some were being put in a van and transported to this trench. Some of the dead bodies still had wristwatches and some had black and red cloths tied on them. It was a traumatising experience," said the old woman.
The former "Butcher" is now Rusape Heroes Acre and mass graves believed to be holding bodies of thousands of combatants killed during the war have been unearthed.
The Mount Darwin-based FHE has been leading efforts to exhume and rebury the remains of freedom fighters nationwide.
FHE comprises war veterans, businessmen and community leaders who work in conjunction with villagers, spirit mediums and prophets to identify the sites.
Leaders of the organisation say they lack resources and logistical support to carry out their work efficiently.
"All people in these graves need to be buried in their respective villages and hometowns but this will not be possible without the necessary logistical support. We need transport, protective and ceremonial regalia to exhume the bodies, coffins, stationary and tools to record the process," said one of the leaders.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
They conducted the first exhumation in 1980 of Kunzwana Chifamba, whose Chimurenga name was Tafirenyika Chimurenga, at Chesa in Rushinga Mount Darwin who was reburied in his home area in Musikavanhu, Chipinge.
At present they have identified over 500 individual graves all over Zimbabwe and over 15 mass graves.
They believe a mass grave at Chibondo near Mt Darwin might have over 300 remains.
Chibondo is a mineshaft and most of the people who were thrown there -- both freedom fighters and civilians -- are in a standing position.
The harrowing stories of freedom fighters being tortured and left to die a violent and painful death were just too ghastly to listen to.
About Me
- Beaver Shaw
- Nairobi, Kenya
- I an ex member of both 7 and 8 Squadron's of the Rhodesian war spending most of my operational time on Seven Squadron as a K Car gunner. I was credited for shooting down a fixed wing aircraft from a K Car on the 9 August 1979. This blog is from articles for research on a book which I HAVE HANDED THIS MANUSCRIPT OVER TO MIMI CAWOOD WHO WILL BE HANDLING THE PUBLICATION OF THE BOOK OF WHICH THERE WILL BE VERY LIMITED COPIES AVAILABLE Contact her on yebomimi@gmail.com The latest news is that the Editing is now done and we can expect to start sales and deliveries by the end of April 2011
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
World Council of Churches and Support to Terrorists in Rhodesia
The World Council of Churches (WCC) in February 1974 approved the distribution of R300 000 to 29 organizations on six continents of which half (R149000) was to be channelled to terrorist movements in Southern Africa and another R67 000 (the largest amount) to the movement fighting against Portuguese forces in Portuguese Guinea. Prior to this the WCC had disbursed a total of R402 000 - more than 60 per cent of it to Southern African terrorists. The organization's financial support to terrorism in the four years, 1970-74, thus exceeds R700 000.
The WCC has concentrated its activities in this regard on Southern Africa (with which it has grouped for convenience Portuguese Guinea) and its adoption of sponsorship of terrorism has undoubtedly had far-reaching impact on the stance adopted by official and unofficial bodies in the Western world. The certificate of respectability given by the highest organized body grouping major churches of the world to those who seek to attain their political objectives by violent means has stimulated others to increase (and sometimes initiate) their own sponsorship of terrorism.
Impetus in West
Prior to 1970 the bulk of the financial support accorded to terror movements in Southern Africa came from Russia, Communist China and other countries behind the Iron Curtain although finance was also arranged within Africa and by various non-Communist governments notably those in the Scandinavian countries. After the World Council of Churches started financing terrorism in 1970 there was a substantial increase in the scale of contributions towards terrorism from non-Communist and non-African sources.
The World Council of Churches has itself claimed to have stimulated and encouraged financial support for terrorism. "The Fund has acted as a leverage, particularly in the case of liberation movements in Southern Africa. Several governments, churches, organisations and many groups and individuals have been influenced by the WCC decision and have made grants to liberation movements", according to Document 40 (d), being a Report on the WCC Central Committee Meeting at Utrecht in August 1972.
Prior to the advent of the WCC into the terrorist supporters club, sponsorship for terrorism in the West came from the radical left. Prominent in this sponsorship was the highly organized anti-South African lobby in Britain. The Defence and Aid Fund, for example, collected R400 000 in 1968 - R60 000 within Britain and the remainder from other sources including a donation of R80 000 from the Swedish Government.
Scandinavian support
The Swedish Government, along with other Scandinavian governments, was prominent on its own account in supporting terrorism. In 1969, for instance, after having given support to terrorists for some years Sweden stepped up her aid and decided to grant financial assistance to the extent of R142 760 a year to terrorists in Portuguese Guinea and R103 200 a year to terrorists in Mocambique. A further escalation occurred in 1973-74 with total Swedish governmental aid to terrorists in Africa reaching R5 million, one-third of this going to rebels in Portuguese Guinea. The 1974-75 Swedish allocation to terrorism was a staggering R7 million. Private Swedish organizations which have donated funds to terrorists include the Swedish International Development Association which gave an amount of R27 000 in 1973-74. A propaganda campaign in Sweden also forced a Swedish corporation to withdraw from participation in the Cabora Bassa project in Mocambique.
In 1970 came WCC involvement in terrorism and immediately there was a stimulation of support for terrorism from Western sources. As indicated above, the Swedish Government increased its annual contribution from about R250 000 before the first WCC grant in 1970 to R7 million thereafter. Other governments were quick to follow the green light of the WCC and Scandinavian countries were well to the fore.
In 1971 the Norwegian Government pledged R70 000 to the OAU for distribution to terror groups and the following year announced an increase in its aid to terrorism but no figures were given. In 1974 Norway announced a R1,5 million grant to terrorism.
The Danish Government earmarked R150 000 to terrorism in 1971 stipulating that it should be for "educational and humanitarian purposes" only and in 1972 raised its contribution to R700 000.
Finland was donating R130000 to terrorists in Southern Africa by 1974 but the scale of previous donations is not known.
PROMINENT SUPPORTERS OF TERRORISM
International organizations: The United Nations, Organization of African Unity
Churches and Church movements: World Council of Churches, All-Africa Conference of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, British Council of Churches, National Council of Churches of America, United Presbyterian Church of America, Reformed Churches of the Netherlands
Governments: Russia, Communist China, East Germany, Roumania, Bulgaria, North Korea and various other Iron Curtain regimes; Tanzania, Zambia, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya and various other African regimes; Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands
Private organizations: Defence and Aid Fund, Anti-Apartheid Movement and various other radical groupings in London; Oxfam and War on Want; Evert Vermeer organization
Individuals: Queen Juliana, ex-President Heinemann, King Hassan
Other governmental aid
The Government of the Netherlands decided in 1974 to donate up to R3,3 million to terrorism. Smaller amounts came from other countries. In September 1970 Guyana donated R18000 to the so-called "Liberation Committee" in Dar es Salaam and in 1972 the Jamaican Government contributed R25 000 to the OAU terror fund. The West German Government announced a R17000 contribution in September 1973 for "humanitarian aid to victims of apartheid" following a firm offer of support the previous month to terrorism from the ruling Social Democratic Party. Canada announced in 1973 that she would intensify her "bilateral and multi-lateral" aid to terrorist movements but did not give a figure. India also joined the terrorist supporters.
In June 1971 the Israeli Government announced that it had granted the equivalent of R2 000 to terrorism following an appeal by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for support for an OAU appeal for funds for terror movements. Israel said that this money would be used for "a variety of purposes - medical, educational, social welfare and others".
The Israeli decision caused a furore in South Africa because of the close friendship ties between the two countries. Dr D.F. Malan, then Prime Minister of South Africa, had been the first head of a foreign government to visit Israel after its establishment in 1948 and his name stands inscribed in Israel's Golden Book.
After the Six Day Middle East War in 1967 R21 million was collected in South Africa for Israel and the South African Government granted special permission for the transfer of funds.
Non-governmental support
In addition to the West German Social Democratic Party other prominent Western political parties which have sponsored terrorists include the Labour Party in Britain which decided in May 1971 to give aid to terrorist forces because, according to its general secretary, it was "in danger of losing friends on the African continent".
Reacting to this decision the South African Prime Minister, Mr John Vorster, said "What Africa needs is not support for terrorists by the British Labour Party but co-operation between African states aimed at peace and prosperity in the continent" while the Leader of the Opposition, Sir de Villiers Graaff, said: "This horrifying decision to support felony and murder comes from the alternative government in the United Kingdom. It is not only irresponsible but dangerous in the unsettled world of to-day." Sir de Villiers issued a warning that this support for the overthrow of governments by insurrection and violence could boomerang on Western governments in unexpected ways. In 1971 the Labour Party in Britain announced a gift of R2 000 to terror groups. Before the 1974 General Election the Labour leader, Harold Wilson, announced that a Labour Government would aid terrorists.
Church involvement
The lead given by the World Council of Churches was quickly followed by individual churches. In 1970 the Lutheran World Federation decided to endorse the WCC participation in terrorism and in 1971 allocated R65 000 in aid to Mopambique terrorists.
Other significant amounts contributed to terrorism have come from the United Presbyterian Church of America and the National Council of Churches of America. (It was the United Presbyterian Church which contributed $10000 for the defence fund of Angela Davis, a self-confessed Communist charged with complicity in the murder of a judge and three others during an attack on a courthouse by Black militants.)
The Evangelical Churches of Germany donated R137 000 to terrorism in Southern Africa in 1971 and in 1974 the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands gave their first donation, of R14000, to terror groups in Southern Africa. Other support from church organizations has come from the British Council of Churches (which endorsed terrorism in October 1971), the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Christian Peace Conference.
The double standards applied by many radical churchmen within and outside the WCC was illustrated by two statements made in a Press interview by Mr D.W. Bleakley, an Irish representative to the Anglican Consultative Council in Limuru, Kenya, in 1971.
Statement Number One:
"Christians must be united on the issue in search of satisfactory grounds to assist freedom fighters in Southern Africa".
Statement Number Two: (after being asked whether the WCC's gift to terror groups would be followed by a similar donation to the Irish Republican Army):
"I think that would be the ultimate indiscretion".
Private donations
In April 1971 the Rowntree Social Services Trust established by the chocolate king Joseph Rowntree donated R50 000 to terrorists in Mozambique as a "spontaneous gesture"; in May 1971 the World University Service, an international student staff organization with an annual budget of R340 000, pledged its support to terrorist training in Africa and elsewhere;in 1971 Oxfam and War on Want contributed to the Mozambique Institute, a clearing house for terrorist programmes; in 1971 the Socialist International decided to give financial aid to terrorists; in April 1972 the Lions Club of Uganda donated R520 to a Uganda Government Fund to be handed to the "Liberation Committee". In the Netherlands, the Evert Vermeer organization began collecting funds for terrorism in co-operation with other leftist groups and in Washington the Committee for Liberation Movements donated R20 000.
United Nations
UN agencies such as UNESCO and the I LO had for many years been in the vanguard of anti-South African activity; in Lusaka in April 1972, Mr Salim Ahmad Salim of Tanzania, speaking as the chairman of the UN Decolonization Committee, said that his Committee would institute a massive campaign of aid to terrorists - the United Nations, he said, had not done enough.
In November 1972 the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling on all states and UN agencies to aid "freedom fighters in colonial territories", in particular movements in Africa in consultation, as appropriate, with the Organization of African Unity".
Sections 3 and 4 of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations read as follows:
All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Individuals
Prominent individuals who have given support to terrorists operating against the governments and peoples of Southern Africa include Queen Juliana of the Netherlands on whose behalf it was announced in 1971 that she had granted an undisclosed amount for "the combatting of racism" (the terminology employed by the World Council of Churches in its fund-raising propaganda), the then West German head of state, Gustav Heinemann, who donated R30 000 and King Hassan of Morocco who personally pledged R770 000 to "the liberation of Southern Africa" in 1972.
Africa's role
Because of the fact that much of the money which is channelled from Western sources to terrorist movements in Southern Africa is not disclosed it is impossible to arrive at an exact figure of the amount of money raised in the West. However, a conservative estimate based on the research findings reported above would give a figure in excess of R23 million.
Thus the funds derived from the Western world for the waging of terrorism in Southern Africa are substantially higher than those raised within the continent itself. Pledges by members to the OAU terrorist fund are estimated (again because much of the money is not disclosed publicly) at R14t5 million. To the figure for the West of R23 million and for Africa of R14,5 million (a total of R37,5 million) must be added the multi-million rand outlay on terrorism in Southern Africa by Iron Curtain countries. Again it is impossible to arrive at the precise amount thus expended but the extent of the Communist armaments captured from terrorists by the governments of Southern Africa and the evidence of training received by terrorists from Africa behind the Iron Curtain indicates that the Communist sponsorship of terrorism in Southern Africa has been a particularly substantial one in financial terms. Certainly there would seem little doubt that, as in the case of Western aid to terrorism in Southern Africa, the African contribution in money terms is far less than that of the Communist world; furthermore, Iron Curtain countries have provided the bulk of the armaments used by terrorists in Southern Africa as well as much of the training (although training and camp facilities have also been provided by African countries such as Algeria, Tanzania and Zambia).
There is no certainty that all the R14,5 million which it is estimated African states have pledged to provide, through the OAU, for the terrorist campaigns has reached OAU headquarters. In fact, few OAU states have met their "dues" regularly in full and in time. Not even the doubling of the budget for terrorism during the Rabat Summit of the OAU in 1972 and a personal pledge of R770000 by King Hassan jolted the African defaulters. By the end of 1973, arrears of OAU members to the terrorist fund were estimated at R9 million (including Egypt R900000, Zaire R430000, Nigeria R850 000, Morocco R704 000 - despite Hassan's personal commitment in public in 1972 - Algeria R58 000, Libya R99000 and Ghana R75 000).
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
In view of the encouragement which the involvement of the World Council of Churches in terrorism in Southern Africa has given others in the Western world and the substantial sponsorship of terrorism that has come from Western sources, it is necessary to give a brief review of the involvement of the WCC in support of terrorism.
The WCC was formed in Amsterdam in 1948 in a bid to heal the age-old divisions within Christendom. The single word "oikoumene" on its badge and in the cable address of its Geneva headquarters bears testimony to the original ecumenical intent of its founding fathers. In the first phase of its existence, and apart from its ecumenical work, the Council performed significant humanitarian services in such areas as bringing relief to millions of the world's homeless and hungry people.
Advent of Eastern Churches
In 1961, Metropolitan Nikolai, second in command of the Russian Orthodox Church, an avowed enemy of the United States in particular and the man who accused the American Army in Korea of burying women and children alive, ushered into full membership of the WCC Russian-approved churches from the Soviet Union, Roumania, Bulgaria and Poland. Claiming a total of 70 million adherents, the new members swiftly brought change to the Council's balance of power and within a few years the WCC's first phase of ecumenical and humanitarian work had given way to a second phase of militant and revolutionary action.
At its Assembly in New Delhi the WCC set up a Secretariat on Racial and Ethnic Relations - its first intervention in the field of race relations. Race relations were strongly emphasized at-the Uppsala Assembly (1968) and the Netting Hill Consultation (1969) and shortly afterwards the Central Committee met at Canterbury and resolved:
We call upon the churches to move beyond charity, grants and traditional programming to relevant and sacrificial action leading to new relationships of dignity and justice among all men and to become agents for the radical reconstruction of society. There can be no justice in our world without a transfer of economic resources to undergird the redistribution of political power and to make cultural self-determination meaningful. In this transfer of resources a corporate act by the ecumenical fellowship of churches can provide a significant moral lead.
The "radical reconstruction of society" for which the WCC wanted the churches to "become agents" was to be through a Special Fund to Combat Racism which would be part of the Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). It is this Special Fund which is used to make donations to terrorists in Southern Africa. From the outset the Special Fund and the PCR dileanated two areas for priority attention:
(i) the so-called "White" world
(ii) Southern Africa
The official WCC publication Programme to Combat Racism: 1970-1973 declares of the background to the establishment of the Special Fund:
It became clear that racism is not confined to certain countries or continents, but that it is a world problem. White racism is not its only form. It is recognized that in some areas there are other forms of racism, and ethnocentrism. It is the coincidence, however, of an accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of the white peoples, following upon their historical and economic progress during the past 400 years, which is the reason for a focus on the various forms of white racism in the different parts of the world.
And, again;
White racism in its many organized ways is by far the most dangerous form of present racial conflicts.
Major WCC target
Having thus defined "white racism" as the major target of its attack, the WCC's PCR then - despite its own admission as given above that there are "various forms of white racism in the different parts of the world" - selected Southern Africa as a particular priority target:
...laying special emphasis in the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa. (Programme... op cit.)
Again, in a report on the Utrecht meeting of the Central Committee in August 1972, the WCC notes:
the situation in Southern Africa is recognized as a priority due to the overt and intensive nature of white racism and the increasing awareness on the part of the oppressed in their struggle for liberation.
The PCR gives token support to such causes as "the exploitation of Indians in Latin America and developed programmes designed to support the struggle of the indigenous peoples not only in Latin America but also in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand" to quote the Programme to Combat Racism: 1970-1973 but in its funding and in the publicizing of its activities the PCR concentrates on support for terrorist movements in Southern Africa.
For instance, of its 1974 allocations $322000 went to Southern African terror groups (the Portuguese Guinea movement known as PAIGC being included by the PCR in Southern Africa) while $50000 was granted to North America, $25000 to Latin America, $20000 to Europe and $10000 to Asia. In addition $28 000 was allocated to "support groups", most of them anti-Southern African extremist groups such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Not a single dollar was allocated by the World Council of Churches to any religious or other group opposed to Communist dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain: and this despite its pledge that "We believe that for our time, the goal of social change is a society in which all the people participate in the fruits and the decision-making processes, in which the centres of power are limited and accountable, in which human rights are truly affirmed for all, and which acts responsibly toward the whole human community of mankind, and towards coming generations" ("Violence, Non-violence and the Struggle for Social Justice", The Ecumenical Review, October 1973.) - F.R.M.
From: Africa Institute Bulletin, 1974, Vol. XII, no. 5
The WCC has concentrated its activities in this regard on Southern Africa (with which it has grouped for convenience Portuguese Guinea) and its adoption of sponsorship of terrorism has undoubtedly had far-reaching impact on the stance adopted by official and unofficial bodies in the Western world. The certificate of respectability given by the highest organized body grouping major churches of the world to those who seek to attain their political objectives by violent means has stimulated others to increase (and sometimes initiate) their own sponsorship of terrorism.
Impetus in West
Prior to 1970 the bulk of the financial support accorded to terror movements in Southern Africa came from Russia, Communist China and other countries behind the Iron Curtain although finance was also arranged within Africa and by various non-Communist governments notably those in the Scandinavian countries. After the World Council of Churches started financing terrorism in 1970 there was a substantial increase in the scale of contributions towards terrorism from non-Communist and non-African sources.
The World Council of Churches has itself claimed to have stimulated and encouraged financial support for terrorism. "The Fund has acted as a leverage, particularly in the case of liberation movements in Southern Africa. Several governments, churches, organisations and many groups and individuals have been influenced by the WCC decision and have made grants to liberation movements", according to Document 40 (d), being a Report on the WCC Central Committee Meeting at Utrecht in August 1972.
Prior to the advent of the WCC into the terrorist supporters club, sponsorship for terrorism in the West came from the radical left. Prominent in this sponsorship was the highly organized anti-South African lobby in Britain. The Defence and Aid Fund, for example, collected R400 000 in 1968 - R60 000 within Britain and the remainder from other sources including a donation of R80 000 from the Swedish Government.
Scandinavian support
The Swedish Government, along with other Scandinavian governments, was prominent on its own account in supporting terrorism. In 1969, for instance, after having given support to terrorists for some years Sweden stepped up her aid and decided to grant financial assistance to the extent of R142 760 a year to terrorists in Portuguese Guinea and R103 200 a year to terrorists in Mocambique. A further escalation occurred in 1973-74 with total Swedish governmental aid to terrorists in Africa reaching R5 million, one-third of this going to rebels in Portuguese Guinea. The 1974-75 Swedish allocation to terrorism was a staggering R7 million. Private Swedish organizations which have donated funds to terrorists include the Swedish International Development Association which gave an amount of R27 000 in 1973-74. A propaganda campaign in Sweden also forced a Swedish corporation to withdraw from participation in the Cabora Bassa project in Mocambique.
In 1970 came WCC involvement in terrorism and immediately there was a stimulation of support for terrorism from Western sources. As indicated above, the Swedish Government increased its annual contribution from about R250 000 before the first WCC grant in 1970 to R7 million thereafter. Other governments were quick to follow the green light of the WCC and Scandinavian countries were well to the fore.
In 1971 the Norwegian Government pledged R70 000 to the OAU for distribution to terror groups and the following year announced an increase in its aid to terrorism but no figures were given. In 1974 Norway announced a R1,5 million grant to terrorism.
The Danish Government earmarked R150 000 to terrorism in 1971 stipulating that it should be for "educational and humanitarian purposes" only and in 1972 raised its contribution to R700 000.
Finland was donating R130000 to terrorists in Southern Africa by 1974 but the scale of previous donations is not known.
PROMINENT SUPPORTERS OF TERRORISM
International organizations: The United Nations, Organization of African Unity
Churches and Church movements: World Council of Churches, All-Africa Conference of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, British Council of Churches, National Council of Churches of America, United Presbyterian Church of America, Reformed Churches of the Netherlands
Governments: Russia, Communist China, East Germany, Roumania, Bulgaria, North Korea and various other Iron Curtain regimes; Tanzania, Zambia, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya and various other African regimes; Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands
Private organizations: Defence and Aid Fund, Anti-Apartheid Movement and various other radical groupings in London; Oxfam and War on Want; Evert Vermeer organization
Individuals: Queen Juliana, ex-President Heinemann, King Hassan
Other governmental aid
The Government of the Netherlands decided in 1974 to donate up to R3,3 million to terrorism. Smaller amounts came from other countries. In September 1970 Guyana donated R18000 to the so-called "Liberation Committee" in Dar es Salaam and in 1972 the Jamaican Government contributed R25 000 to the OAU terror fund. The West German Government announced a R17000 contribution in September 1973 for "humanitarian aid to victims of apartheid" following a firm offer of support the previous month to terrorism from the ruling Social Democratic Party. Canada announced in 1973 that she would intensify her "bilateral and multi-lateral" aid to terrorist movements but did not give a figure. India also joined the terrorist supporters.
In June 1971 the Israeli Government announced that it had granted the equivalent of R2 000 to terrorism following an appeal by the Secretary-General of the United Nations for support for an OAU appeal for funds for terror movements. Israel said that this money would be used for "a variety of purposes - medical, educational, social welfare and others".
The Israeli decision caused a furore in South Africa because of the close friendship ties between the two countries. Dr D.F. Malan, then Prime Minister of South Africa, had been the first head of a foreign government to visit Israel after its establishment in 1948 and his name stands inscribed in Israel's Golden Book.
After the Six Day Middle East War in 1967 R21 million was collected in South Africa for Israel and the South African Government granted special permission for the transfer of funds.
Non-governmental support
In addition to the West German Social Democratic Party other prominent Western political parties which have sponsored terrorists include the Labour Party in Britain which decided in May 1971 to give aid to terrorist forces because, according to its general secretary, it was "in danger of losing friends on the African continent".
Reacting to this decision the South African Prime Minister, Mr John Vorster, said "What Africa needs is not support for terrorists by the British Labour Party but co-operation between African states aimed at peace and prosperity in the continent" while the Leader of the Opposition, Sir de Villiers Graaff, said: "This horrifying decision to support felony and murder comes from the alternative government in the United Kingdom. It is not only irresponsible but dangerous in the unsettled world of to-day." Sir de Villiers issued a warning that this support for the overthrow of governments by insurrection and violence could boomerang on Western governments in unexpected ways. In 1971 the Labour Party in Britain announced a gift of R2 000 to terror groups. Before the 1974 General Election the Labour leader, Harold Wilson, announced that a Labour Government would aid terrorists.
Church involvement
The lead given by the World Council of Churches was quickly followed by individual churches. In 1970 the Lutheran World Federation decided to endorse the WCC participation in terrorism and in 1971 allocated R65 000 in aid to Mopambique terrorists.
Other significant amounts contributed to terrorism have come from the United Presbyterian Church of America and the National Council of Churches of America. (It was the United Presbyterian Church which contributed $10000 for the defence fund of Angela Davis, a self-confessed Communist charged with complicity in the murder of a judge and three others during an attack on a courthouse by Black militants.)
The Evangelical Churches of Germany donated R137 000 to terrorism in Southern Africa in 1971 and in 1974 the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands gave their first donation, of R14000, to terror groups in Southern Africa. Other support from church organizations has come from the British Council of Churches (which endorsed terrorism in October 1971), the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Christian Peace Conference.
The double standards applied by many radical churchmen within and outside the WCC was illustrated by two statements made in a Press interview by Mr D.W. Bleakley, an Irish representative to the Anglican Consultative Council in Limuru, Kenya, in 1971.
Statement Number One:
"Christians must be united on the issue in search of satisfactory grounds to assist freedom fighters in Southern Africa".
Statement Number Two: (after being asked whether the WCC's gift to terror groups would be followed by a similar donation to the Irish Republican Army):
"I think that would be the ultimate indiscretion".
Private donations
In April 1971 the Rowntree Social Services Trust established by the chocolate king Joseph Rowntree donated R50 000 to terrorists in Mozambique as a "spontaneous gesture"; in May 1971 the World University Service, an international student staff organization with an annual budget of R340 000, pledged its support to terrorist training in Africa and elsewhere;in 1971 Oxfam and War on Want contributed to the Mozambique Institute, a clearing house for terrorist programmes; in 1971 the Socialist International decided to give financial aid to terrorists; in April 1972 the Lions Club of Uganda donated R520 to a Uganda Government Fund to be handed to the "Liberation Committee". In the Netherlands, the Evert Vermeer organization began collecting funds for terrorism in co-operation with other leftist groups and in Washington the Committee for Liberation Movements donated R20 000.
United Nations
UN agencies such as UNESCO and the I LO had for many years been in the vanguard of anti-South African activity; in Lusaka in April 1972, Mr Salim Ahmad Salim of Tanzania, speaking as the chairman of the UN Decolonization Committee, said that his Committee would institute a massive campaign of aid to terrorists - the United Nations, he said, had not done enough.
In November 1972 the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling on all states and UN agencies to aid "freedom fighters in colonial territories", in particular movements in Africa in consultation, as appropriate, with the Organization of African Unity".
Sections 3 and 4 of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations read as follows:
All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Individuals
Prominent individuals who have given support to terrorists operating against the governments and peoples of Southern Africa include Queen Juliana of the Netherlands on whose behalf it was announced in 1971 that she had granted an undisclosed amount for "the combatting of racism" (the terminology employed by the World Council of Churches in its fund-raising propaganda), the then West German head of state, Gustav Heinemann, who donated R30 000 and King Hassan of Morocco who personally pledged R770 000 to "the liberation of Southern Africa" in 1972.
Africa's role
Because of the fact that much of the money which is channelled from Western sources to terrorist movements in Southern Africa is not disclosed it is impossible to arrive at an exact figure of the amount of money raised in the West. However, a conservative estimate based on the research findings reported above would give a figure in excess of R23 million.
Thus the funds derived from the Western world for the waging of terrorism in Southern Africa are substantially higher than those raised within the continent itself. Pledges by members to the OAU terrorist fund are estimated (again because much of the money is not disclosed publicly) at R14t5 million. To the figure for the West of R23 million and for Africa of R14,5 million (a total of R37,5 million) must be added the multi-million rand outlay on terrorism in Southern Africa by Iron Curtain countries. Again it is impossible to arrive at the precise amount thus expended but the extent of the Communist armaments captured from terrorists by the governments of Southern Africa and the evidence of training received by terrorists from Africa behind the Iron Curtain indicates that the Communist sponsorship of terrorism in Southern Africa has been a particularly substantial one in financial terms. Certainly there would seem little doubt that, as in the case of Western aid to terrorism in Southern Africa, the African contribution in money terms is far less than that of the Communist world; furthermore, Iron Curtain countries have provided the bulk of the armaments used by terrorists in Southern Africa as well as much of the training (although training and camp facilities have also been provided by African countries such as Algeria, Tanzania and Zambia).
There is no certainty that all the R14,5 million which it is estimated African states have pledged to provide, through the OAU, for the terrorist campaigns has reached OAU headquarters. In fact, few OAU states have met their "dues" regularly in full and in time. Not even the doubling of the budget for terrorism during the Rabat Summit of the OAU in 1972 and a personal pledge of R770000 by King Hassan jolted the African defaulters. By the end of 1973, arrears of OAU members to the terrorist fund were estimated at R9 million (including Egypt R900000, Zaire R430000, Nigeria R850 000, Morocco R704 000 - despite Hassan's personal commitment in public in 1972 - Algeria R58 000, Libya R99000 and Ghana R75 000).
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
In view of the encouragement which the involvement of the World Council of Churches in terrorism in Southern Africa has given others in the Western world and the substantial sponsorship of terrorism that has come from Western sources, it is necessary to give a brief review of the involvement of the WCC in support of terrorism.
The WCC was formed in Amsterdam in 1948 in a bid to heal the age-old divisions within Christendom. The single word "oikoumene" on its badge and in the cable address of its Geneva headquarters bears testimony to the original ecumenical intent of its founding fathers. In the first phase of its existence, and apart from its ecumenical work, the Council performed significant humanitarian services in such areas as bringing relief to millions of the world's homeless and hungry people.
Advent of Eastern Churches
In 1961, Metropolitan Nikolai, second in command of the Russian Orthodox Church, an avowed enemy of the United States in particular and the man who accused the American Army in Korea of burying women and children alive, ushered into full membership of the WCC Russian-approved churches from the Soviet Union, Roumania, Bulgaria and Poland. Claiming a total of 70 million adherents, the new members swiftly brought change to the Council's balance of power and within a few years the WCC's first phase of ecumenical and humanitarian work had given way to a second phase of militant and revolutionary action.
At its Assembly in New Delhi the WCC set up a Secretariat on Racial and Ethnic Relations - its first intervention in the field of race relations. Race relations were strongly emphasized at-the Uppsala Assembly (1968) and the Netting Hill Consultation (1969) and shortly afterwards the Central Committee met at Canterbury and resolved:
We call upon the churches to move beyond charity, grants and traditional programming to relevant and sacrificial action leading to new relationships of dignity and justice among all men and to become agents for the radical reconstruction of society. There can be no justice in our world without a transfer of economic resources to undergird the redistribution of political power and to make cultural self-determination meaningful. In this transfer of resources a corporate act by the ecumenical fellowship of churches can provide a significant moral lead.
The "radical reconstruction of society" for which the WCC wanted the churches to "become agents" was to be through a Special Fund to Combat Racism which would be part of the Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). It is this Special Fund which is used to make donations to terrorists in Southern Africa. From the outset the Special Fund and the PCR dileanated two areas for priority attention:
(i) the so-called "White" world
(ii) Southern Africa
The official WCC publication Programme to Combat Racism: 1970-1973 declares of the background to the establishment of the Special Fund:
It became clear that racism is not confined to certain countries or continents, but that it is a world problem. White racism is not its only form. It is recognized that in some areas there are other forms of racism, and ethnocentrism. It is the coincidence, however, of an accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of the white peoples, following upon their historical and economic progress during the past 400 years, which is the reason for a focus on the various forms of white racism in the different parts of the world.
And, again;
White racism in its many organized ways is by far the most dangerous form of present racial conflicts.
Major WCC target
Having thus defined "white racism" as the major target of its attack, the WCC's PCR then - despite its own admission as given above that there are "various forms of white racism in the different parts of the world" - selected Southern Africa as a particular priority target:
...laying special emphasis in the struggle for liberation in Southern Africa. (Programme... op cit.)
Again, in a report on the Utrecht meeting of the Central Committee in August 1972, the WCC notes:
the situation in Southern Africa is recognized as a priority due to the overt and intensive nature of white racism and the increasing awareness on the part of the oppressed in their struggle for liberation.
The PCR gives token support to such causes as "the exploitation of Indians in Latin America and developed programmes designed to support the struggle of the indigenous peoples not only in Latin America but also in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand" to quote the Programme to Combat Racism: 1970-1973 but in its funding and in the publicizing of its activities the PCR concentrates on support for terrorist movements in Southern Africa.
For instance, of its 1974 allocations $322000 went to Southern African terror groups (the Portuguese Guinea movement known as PAIGC being included by the PCR in Southern Africa) while $50000 was granted to North America, $25000 to Latin America, $20000 to Europe and $10000 to Asia. In addition $28 000 was allocated to "support groups", most of them anti-Southern African extremist groups such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Not a single dollar was allocated by the World Council of Churches to any religious or other group opposed to Communist dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain: and this despite its pledge that "We believe that for our time, the goal of social change is a society in which all the people participate in the fruits and the decision-making processes, in which the centres of power are limited and accountable, in which human rights are truly affirmed for all, and which acts responsibly toward the whole human community of mankind, and towards coming generations" ("Violence, Non-violence and the Struggle for Social Justice", The Ecumenical Review, October 1973.) - F.R.M.
From: Africa Institute Bulletin, 1974, Vol. XII, no. 5
Friday, October 2, 2009
CHRIS HANI IN RHODESIA
By Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp
The MK-ZIPRA plan involved setting up three crossing points along the Zambezi in order to stretch the enemy forces. The first crossing, which involved Hani's group, would take place near Livingstone, another near Lake Kariba and a third near Feira. As the men prepared to cross, ANC NEC member Ruth Mompati went through the group's luggage, ensuring there was nothing to incriminate them, such as a Soviet-made watch or shirt. Nevertheless, there was a problem.
Continues Below ↓
By the time the almost 100-strong contingent was loaded onto trucks under cover of darkness for the 25-kilometre journey to the crossing point, trucks had ferried their equipment to the same point, so it seemed as if preparations had been more than adequate.
But once they arrived, it became clear to Hani that there was insufficient weaponry. Marching at the head of the Luthuli Detachment with Tambo and fellow commander Mjojo Mxwaku, Hani told Tambo that this was a serious enough issue to stall the entire campaign. Mjojo backed up Hani's assertion.
Earlier, the MK commander-in-chief, Joe Modise, had turned down a request from the men for additional ammunition.
Now Tambo himself made the request. By the next day, each man had been given an additional magazine, a grenade and 300 rounds of ammunition. The detachment was now armed with an assortment of SKS rifles, AK47s, submachine guns, light machine guns (LMGs), rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), Makarov pistols and small radios. Finally, the mission could get under way.
As the group made their way towards the river, February, fiddling with his rifle, accidentally let off a shot. The men stopped dead and fell silent.
Hani investigated the source of the noise, as the report could have carried across the river to patrolling enemy troops. But there was no turning back now. As they approached the riverine escarpment, the echoes of the wild broke the night air. The howl of a jackal, the hollow bark of a hippo. Hearts pumped furiously with excitement. Fear. Anticipation. Far below, the men could hear the sound of rushing water.
The crossing point had been carefully selected, with the thinking being that the enemy would not expect the liberation fighters to cross at such a difficult spot. "Lizwe?" came a call from the darkness.
"Lolo," replied one of the men in the detachment. Emerging from behind a tree was their comrade, Boston Gagarin, a short and stocky man in swimming trunks.
His team would lead them from Point Lolo across the river to Base One.
Hani was the first to climb down. The rope snaking 200 metres down the side of the steep gorge allowed the men to quietly clamber over the rockface, although they occasionally flinched as rocks loosened by those above them hurtled downwards.
Moments before Dabengwa reached the bottom, a climber above him slipped, sending a small boulder tumbling down, which knocked the ZIPRA commander unconscious.
At the foot of the rockface, the comrades gathered on the narrow shoreline.
The occasional shimmer revealed the 35-metre-wide, fastmoving obstacle before them. On the opposite side of the river, by the sliver of light available, some could discern the figure of Hani. He was already doing exercises.
Moving close to 100 men across on inflatable boats was a tedious business, but the entire contingent finally reached the Rhodesian shore by 5am. Having successfully concluded the first phase of its operation, the Luthuli Detachment saluted its leader, Tambo, still standing, watching and waiting, on the opposite shore.
Thus, 2 August 1967 saw the start of one of the most courageous, if ill-fated, adventures in the history of the ANC.
Those who were there remember the unity as night descended again, and the men resting quietly in the shadows of the mopane trees came to life. At the head of the column, Hani set a blistering pace.
Marching only in darkness, the soldiers navigated using the stars and their compasses. But trouble struck early.
Their food and water started running out, and the men were soon reduced to one meal a day. Two days into its mission, the detachment was forced to make contact with locals in order to supplement their rations.
After a week, as planned, a smaller combined MK-ZIPRA unit of 21 men broke away and headed towards Lupane in the east. It was planned that this group, led by Andries Motsepe, would establish a northern and central Zimbabwe base for the future infiltration of cadres to the home front. Two weeks after entering Rhodesia, Motsepe and his group made contact with the enemy on the banks of the Nyatuwe River, between Wankie Game Reserve and Dett. The battle raged for 10 hours. Pinned down on the banks of the river, the small group put up a spirited fight, but were no match for the Rhodesian troops.
Far away from the fighting, the main Luthuli contingent listened to the battle on their radios. They had been plagued by setbacks, the most serious of which was when a cadre went missing, and three others were sent to look for him. None rejoined the group. The ever-jovial Hani, however, lived up to his role as commissar, continually encouraging the men under his command and cracking jokes to keep their spirits up. He knew it was only a matter of time before they engaged the Rhodesians. Until then, it was a case of marching at night, sleeping during the day.
After almost two weeks, the pace and conditions were gruelling. The men became exhausted. On one of the stops, cadre Lawrence Phokanoka, also known as Peter Tladi, discovered he had left his weapon behind at a camp where the men had rested in the middle of the night. He had to return to find it, and eventually the contingent moved on, leaving him behind.
He, too, did not rejoin the detachment and was ultimately arrested.
By now deep inside the reserve and without any contact, Hani's show of bravado, fiercely marching on with a knapsack that seemed featherlight, began to lose its inspiration. Marching on empty stomachs and critically short of water, the weakened soldiers found themselves stumbling through acacia thorn bushes, which tore at their uniforms and at their flesh. At one point, a contingent - including James April and John Dube - went in search of water.
Although they used pangas to mark trees along the way, the group soon lost their way in the dense bush. This was the dry season, so there were almost no rivers or streams. Their survey maps, which dated from the 1940s, were hugely inaccurate. April told us of how the sight of water one morning caused utter disbelief.
The pan was shining and unbroken, reflecting the sky, and the men were emotional as they approached it.
Being in a game reserve also presented a unique set of challenges. Hani said he regarded the elephant, lion and giraffe as part of a greater harmony, the way in which he and his men would know if water was safe to drink, or if there were other people in the vicinity. During night-time training sessions, the troops had often encountered game animals and had come to understand their behaviour. At one point, a rogue elephant chased the group, eventually singling out Mjojo Mxwaku, who fortunately managed to escape.
Rhodesian forces had by now picked up the invaders' trail, and were following close behind. The distance covered by Hani's detachment was dropping each day. The soldiers were getting weaker. The time to attack was fast approaching.
Despite the hardships, Hani's view was that so far everything had gone according to plan. By mid-August, however, spotter planes began to track their movements, prompting the detachment to prepare for battle. The men fortified their positions, dug foxholes and organised defence lines, just as they had been taught in training.
The enemy waited. Two weeks later, they struck. Aircraft circled their position early one morning. Trucks packed with soldiers started arriving at about 10am, passing only about 100m away. The Luthuli men took up their positions, but there was some concern for two cadres who had gone to fetch water at a dam.
When, hours later, the group heard an exchange of fire, Hani realised the two men must have been killed. For a long time afterwards, the air was silent.
Then, at about 3pm, a burst of gunfire was directed at the Luthuli Detachment positions. The Rhodesians shouted for the 'terrorists' to surrender, and so the taunting began. Hani's command insisted that nobody was allowed to pull a trigger before a target was clearly identified.
There had to be economy of ammunition. Every bullet was precious. But the silence worried the enemy, and they opened fire. Caught in their first ever battle, the Luthuli men were terrified as bullets landed at their feet and whizzed past their ears. "It was like the chopping of hearts against the ribs," said Hani later.
The unspoken understanding within the detachment was that there would be no surrender.
The silence had given the Rhodesian troops a false sense of confidence, even arrogance. Standing up from their firing positions, some of their soldiers called out, trying to get a better view of the enemy. Finally, with the RAR clearly in their sights, some cadres opened fire. Two Rhodesians fell, and immediately there was panic in the RAR ranks. Hani led the Luthuli unit as they broke from their positions to pursue the fleeing enemy.
Then, like pirates, the men descended on the supplies left by their attackers. Also among the booty was a brand new LMG, new uniforms and boots. In one RAR soldier's bag, they found an unfinished letter to a girlfriend.
lll
The liberation force's success in this early battle resounded across the continent.
Tambo and Chikerema released a press statement shortly afterwards, respectful of the fierce fighting that had taken place:
'From the 13th of this month, the area of Wankie has been the scene of the most daring battles ever fought between freedom fighters and the white oppressors' army in Rhodesia. Only last night, the Rhodesian regime admitted having been engaged in a six-hour battle yesterday.
'In fact, the fighting in this area has been going on continuously for a full six days. Both the Rhodesian and the South African regimes have admitted that South African freedom fighters belonging to the ANC have been involved in these courageous battles, fighting their way to strike at the boers themselves in South Africa.'
Ben Magubane recalls reports on the BBC World Service and Voice of America, in which it was said the men were encircled. He also read about Wankie in the newspapers, 'and it was actually exciting, but in order to get a copy, you had to be at the shop very early'. The descriptions of bombs falling and bodies shaking underpinned dozens of almost mythical adventure stories about Wankie. For the oppressed peoples of Southern Africa, this benign energy and idealism offset some of the humiliation and violence to which they were subjected.
Albie Sachs - who was living in London at the time, having decided to go into exile - said he can remember 'vividly' how Tambo announced this grand move forward with the armed struggle. The meeting at which he made the announcement was held at Peace House, which was actually a Quaker meeting house:
'We were not told what it was all about, but it was very important to get a big crowd. He (Tambo) said armed combatants were proceeding to South Africa and managing to roam undetected... that they had engaged in combat.
'People cheered and cheered, then a man shouted, "That's murder!" a couple of times. It was a well-elocuted voice from the back. But we wanted to know, who was this provocateur? Then Tambo responded.
'He said, "yes, we have become killers. We sought by every means possible a peaceful solution. This was met by more and more repression. We were a peaceloving people ..."'
Sachs said Tambo ended up telling the gathering about the implications of the campaign: the ANC was not only going after installations now, but was using weapons of war. He said he sensed a 'very close understanding between Chris Hani and OR Tambo - a great moral and personal respect that each had for the other'.
Wankie had turned Hani into 'an admired leader... he'd been in combat and now had a different kind of authority, an unofficial, intangible sense of authority'.
Sachs said one of the outstanding things about Nelson Mandela is that he 'stood out, physically - he had a kind of stature'. The judge explained that Hani also had 'that standout quality". "You know that excitement when a person (like that) enters a room. They have an allure, a charisma. He had physical courage, intellectual clarity, a strong sense of morality'
When he spoke later about the fighting, Hani believed this was indeed the moment at which the detachment was transformed into a fighting force. The men's reaction to the enemy attack recognised courage and faith, he would later say. And the initial triumph also gave hope to those fighting for liberation all across Africa, echoing throughout South Africa and inspiring a new generation. The legend of Chris Hani was born.
Extracted from Hani: A Life too Short, by Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp. Published by Jonathan Ball, it is available at bookshops nationwide at a cost of R190. Don't miss the Saturday Star and Sunday Independent for more extracts in which the never-told stories of Hani's relationships beyond politics are revealed - the tale of a long love affair and the high drama of a terrible betrayal in battle.
This article was originally published on page 15 of The Star on October 02, 2009
The MK-ZIPRA plan involved setting up three crossing points along the Zambezi in order to stretch the enemy forces. The first crossing, which involved Hani's group, would take place near Livingstone, another near Lake Kariba and a third near Feira. As the men prepared to cross, ANC NEC member Ruth Mompati went through the group's luggage, ensuring there was nothing to incriminate them, such as a Soviet-made watch or shirt. Nevertheless, there was a problem.
Continues Below ↓
By the time the almost 100-strong contingent was loaded onto trucks under cover of darkness for the 25-kilometre journey to the crossing point, trucks had ferried their equipment to the same point, so it seemed as if preparations had been more than adequate.
But once they arrived, it became clear to Hani that there was insufficient weaponry. Marching at the head of the Luthuli Detachment with Tambo and fellow commander Mjojo Mxwaku, Hani told Tambo that this was a serious enough issue to stall the entire campaign. Mjojo backed up Hani's assertion.
Earlier, the MK commander-in-chief, Joe Modise, had turned down a request from the men for additional ammunition.
Now Tambo himself made the request. By the next day, each man had been given an additional magazine, a grenade and 300 rounds of ammunition. The detachment was now armed with an assortment of SKS rifles, AK47s, submachine guns, light machine guns (LMGs), rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), Makarov pistols and small radios. Finally, the mission could get under way.
As the group made their way towards the river, February, fiddling with his rifle, accidentally let off a shot. The men stopped dead and fell silent.
Hani investigated the source of the noise, as the report could have carried across the river to patrolling enemy troops. But there was no turning back now. As they approached the riverine escarpment, the echoes of the wild broke the night air. The howl of a jackal, the hollow bark of a hippo. Hearts pumped furiously with excitement. Fear. Anticipation. Far below, the men could hear the sound of rushing water.
The crossing point had been carefully selected, with the thinking being that the enemy would not expect the liberation fighters to cross at such a difficult spot. "Lizwe?" came a call from the darkness.
"Lolo," replied one of the men in the detachment. Emerging from behind a tree was their comrade, Boston Gagarin, a short and stocky man in swimming trunks.
His team would lead them from Point Lolo across the river to Base One.
Hani was the first to climb down. The rope snaking 200 metres down the side of the steep gorge allowed the men to quietly clamber over the rockface, although they occasionally flinched as rocks loosened by those above them hurtled downwards.
Moments before Dabengwa reached the bottom, a climber above him slipped, sending a small boulder tumbling down, which knocked the ZIPRA commander unconscious.
At the foot of the rockface, the comrades gathered on the narrow shoreline.
The occasional shimmer revealed the 35-metre-wide, fastmoving obstacle before them. On the opposite side of the river, by the sliver of light available, some could discern the figure of Hani. He was already doing exercises.
Moving close to 100 men across on inflatable boats was a tedious business, but the entire contingent finally reached the Rhodesian shore by 5am. Having successfully concluded the first phase of its operation, the Luthuli Detachment saluted its leader, Tambo, still standing, watching and waiting, on the opposite shore.
Thus, 2 August 1967 saw the start of one of the most courageous, if ill-fated, adventures in the history of the ANC.
Those who were there remember the unity as night descended again, and the men resting quietly in the shadows of the mopane trees came to life. At the head of the column, Hani set a blistering pace.
Marching only in darkness, the soldiers navigated using the stars and their compasses. But trouble struck early.
Their food and water started running out, and the men were soon reduced to one meal a day. Two days into its mission, the detachment was forced to make contact with locals in order to supplement their rations.
After a week, as planned, a smaller combined MK-ZIPRA unit of 21 men broke away and headed towards Lupane in the east. It was planned that this group, led by Andries Motsepe, would establish a northern and central Zimbabwe base for the future infiltration of cadres to the home front. Two weeks after entering Rhodesia, Motsepe and his group made contact with the enemy on the banks of the Nyatuwe River, between Wankie Game Reserve and Dett. The battle raged for 10 hours. Pinned down on the banks of the river, the small group put up a spirited fight, but were no match for the Rhodesian troops.
Far away from the fighting, the main Luthuli contingent listened to the battle on their radios. They had been plagued by setbacks, the most serious of which was when a cadre went missing, and three others were sent to look for him. None rejoined the group. The ever-jovial Hani, however, lived up to his role as commissar, continually encouraging the men under his command and cracking jokes to keep their spirits up. He knew it was only a matter of time before they engaged the Rhodesians. Until then, it was a case of marching at night, sleeping during the day.
After almost two weeks, the pace and conditions were gruelling. The men became exhausted. On one of the stops, cadre Lawrence Phokanoka, also known as Peter Tladi, discovered he had left his weapon behind at a camp where the men had rested in the middle of the night. He had to return to find it, and eventually the contingent moved on, leaving him behind.
He, too, did not rejoin the detachment and was ultimately arrested.
By now deep inside the reserve and without any contact, Hani's show of bravado, fiercely marching on with a knapsack that seemed featherlight, began to lose its inspiration. Marching on empty stomachs and critically short of water, the weakened soldiers found themselves stumbling through acacia thorn bushes, which tore at their uniforms and at their flesh. At one point, a contingent - including James April and John Dube - went in search of water.
Although they used pangas to mark trees along the way, the group soon lost their way in the dense bush. This was the dry season, so there were almost no rivers or streams. Their survey maps, which dated from the 1940s, were hugely inaccurate. April told us of how the sight of water one morning caused utter disbelief.
The pan was shining and unbroken, reflecting the sky, and the men were emotional as they approached it.
Being in a game reserve also presented a unique set of challenges. Hani said he regarded the elephant, lion and giraffe as part of a greater harmony, the way in which he and his men would know if water was safe to drink, or if there were other people in the vicinity. During night-time training sessions, the troops had often encountered game animals and had come to understand their behaviour. At one point, a rogue elephant chased the group, eventually singling out Mjojo Mxwaku, who fortunately managed to escape.
Rhodesian forces had by now picked up the invaders' trail, and were following close behind. The distance covered by Hani's detachment was dropping each day. The soldiers were getting weaker. The time to attack was fast approaching.
Despite the hardships, Hani's view was that so far everything had gone according to plan. By mid-August, however, spotter planes began to track their movements, prompting the detachment to prepare for battle. The men fortified their positions, dug foxholes and organised defence lines, just as they had been taught in training.
The enemy waited. Two weeks later, they struck. Aircraft circled their position early one morning. Trucks packed with soldiers started arriving at about 10am, passing only about 100m away. The Luthuli men took up their positions, but there was some concern for two cadres who had gone to fetch water at a dam.
When, hours later, the group heard an exchange of fire, Hani realised the two men must have been killed. For a long time afterwards, the air was silent.
Then, at about 3pm, a burst of gunfire was directed at the Luthuli Detachment positions. The Rhodesians shouted for the 'terrorists' to surrender, and so the taunting began. Hani's command insisted that nobody was allowed to pull a trigger before a target was clearly identified.
There had to be economy of ammunition. Every bullet was precious. But the silence worried the enemy, and they opened fire. Caught in their first ever battle, the Luthuli men were terrified as bullets landed at their feet and whizzed past their ears. "It was like the chopping of hearts against the ribs," said Hani later.
The unspoken understanding within the detachment was that there would be no surrender.
The silence had given the Rhodesian troops a false sense of confidence, even arrogance. Standing up from their firing positions, some of their soldiers called out, trying to get a better view of the enemy. Finally, with the RAR clearly in their sights, some cadres opened fire. Two Rhodesians fell, and immediately there was panic in the RAR ranks. Hani led the Luthuli unit as they broke from their positions to pursue the fleeing enemy.
Then, like pirates, the men descended on the supplies left by their attackers. Also among the booty was a brand new LMG, new uniforms and boots. In one RAR soldier's bag, they found an unfinished letter to a girlfriend.
lll
The liberation force's success in this early battle resounded across the continent.
Tambo and Chikerema released a press statement shortly afterwards, respectful of the fierce fighting that had taken place:
'From the 13th of this month, the area of Wankie has been the scene of the most daring battles ever fought between freedom fighters and the white oppressors' army in Rhodesia. Only last night, the Rhodesian regime admitted having been engaged in a six-hour battle yesterday.
'In fact, the fighting in this area has been going on continuously for a full six days. Both the Rhodesian and the South African regimes have admitted that South African freedom fighters belonging to the ANC have been involved in these courageous battles, fighting their way to strike at the boers themselves in South Africa.'
Ben Magubane recalls reports on the BBC World Service and Voice of America, in which it was said the men were encircled. He also read about Wankie in the newspapers, 'and it was actually exciting, but in order to get a copy, you had to be at the shop very early'. The descriptions of bombs falling and bodies shaking underpinned dozens of almost mythical adventure stories about Wankie. For the oppressed peoples of Southern Africa, this benign energy and idealism offset some of the humiliation and violence to which they were subjected.
Albie Sachs - who was living in London at the time, having decided to go into exile - said he can remember 'vividly' how Tambo announced this grand move forward with the armed struggle. The meeting at which he made the announcement was held at Peace House, which was actually a Quaker meeting house:
'We were not told what it was all about, but it was very important to get a big crowd. He (Tambo) said armed combatants were proceeding to South Africa and managing to roam undetected... that they had engaged in combat.
'People cheered and cheered, then a man shouted, "That's murder!" a couple of times. It was a well-elocuted voice from the back. But we wanted to know, who was this provocateur? Then Tambo responded.
'He said, "yes, we have become killers. We sought by every means possible a peaceful solution. This was met by more and more repression. We were a peaceloving people ..."'
Sachs said Tambo ended up telling the gathering about the implications of the campaign: the ANC was not only going after installations now, but was using weapons of war. He said he sensed a 'very close understanding between Chris Hani and OR Tambo - a great moral and personal respect that each had for the other'.
Wankie had turned Hani into 'an admired leader... he'd been in combat and now had a different kind of authority, an unofficial, intangible sense of authority'.
Sachs said one of the outstanding things about Nelson Mandela is that he 'stood out, physically - he had a kind of stature'. The judge explained that Hani also had 'that standout quality". "You know that excitement when a person (like that) enters a room. They have an allure, a charisma. He had physical courage, intellectual clarity, a strong sense of morality'
When he spoke later about the fighting, Hani believed this was indeed the moment at which the detachment was transformed into a fighting force. The men's reaction to the enemy attack recognised courage and faith, he would later say. And the initial triumph also gave hope to those fighting for liberation all across Africa, echoing throughout South Africa and inspiring a new generation. The legend of Chris Hani was born.
Extracted from Hani: A Life too Short, by Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp. Published by Jonathan Ball, it is available at bookshops nationwide at a cost of R190. Don't miss the Saturday Star and Sunday Independent for more extracts in which the never-told stories of Hani's relationships beyond politics are revealed - the tale of a long love affair and the high drama of a terrible betrayal in battle.
This article was originally published on page 15 of The Star on October 02, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
IMAGES OF FIREFORCE RHODESIA
AIRBORNE K CAR GUNNERS VIEW
K CAR FORWARD AREA
ALOUETTE CRASH RECOVERY
G CARS OPERATING OUT OF FORWARD AREA
LYNX RUNNING IN
ALOUETTE PARKED IN REVETMENT
DAKOTA RESUPPLY
TROOPIES
TROOPIES
Early Morning in a FAF
Running in to target
Thursday, September 10, 2009
SMERSH VERSION CHOPPERTECH
I have found a bookbinder in Nairobi who can make up hardcover books which is good news to me. I am going to get them to do a very limited Edttion of Choppertech with text and photographs that will not be published with the version that I am negotiating with publishers.
I will probably only do about 10 copies of the "SMERSH" Version and will decide on how I want them to be distributed.
If I don't reach an agreement with a publisher at least there will be a few copies out and I never wasted all that time.
The result of me asking for pre orders was very poor so I have my doubts that it is worth going for a publishing run
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
COUNTERSTRIKE BOOK
Dear all,
I have some very exciting news. I have been chatting to a broadcaster in New Zealand about Counter-Strike from the Sky. He previewed the entire documentary and loved it. He aquires one-hour specials for his channel—The Documentary Channel. According to Richard on an average night they enjoy 10-15 000 viewers per one-hour special. Once they have screened it he will put me in touch with some big shot UK and US distributors so hopefully it will gain some momentum from this and be snatched up by another.
I can't thank you all enough for all the energy and support you have all given this project. Hugh will have to feedback to us on what it all looked like on tellie as he is the only one in New Zealand but I'm sure it'll be a hit.
Kind regards
Kerrin
Saturday, August 29, 2009
AK 47 ASSAULT RIFLE
Kalashnikov’s 60 deadly years (Homeless Talk, South Africa)
Harrison Ndlovu
June 2, 2008
The world’s most popular weapon, the AK-47, has reached the 60th anniversary of its deadly career. About 100 million Kalashnikovs are in circulation worldwide, used by state agents, insurgents, gangsters, individuals and private security; and there may not be a country which has not had an incident involving an AK-47.
The gun has featured prominently in nearly all armed conflicts around the world, especially in Asia and Africa. During the 1970s the Vietnamese used it to drive US troops out of their country; though American face savers argue that they were not actually defeated in combat.
It was also the standard weapon in the Korean and Cambodian wars. In the hands of idiots like late Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, the Kalashnikov became an accessory in some of the world’s worst human rights calamities.
Since the 1960s, the unending Middle East wars have relied on the AK-47 for firepower. That included the bloody Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, in which death squads operated with impunity. Today’s nasty fighting is reminiscent of that period, and the AK-47 is still the weapon of choice.
Both the Iraqi and Iranian Arab brothers used Kalashnikovs when they fought during the 1980s Gulf War. Reports said hundreds of Iranian child soldiers were often massacred by Iraqi gunners as they charged at enemy tanks armed only with AK-47s, having been made to believe that the popular weapon made them invincible.
The Kalashnikov gun has also featured in the killing of prominent personalities. On 6 October 1981 AK-47 wielding fundamentalist assassins assassinated ex-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in a hail of bullets.
In June 1989 the Type 56 version of the AK-47 was involved in massacring hundreds of Chinese pro-democracy protestors in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Government forces opened fire on the crowds, killing 3 000 people, according to student unions. The New York Times newspaper estimated the toll at 800, while the Chinese government reduced it to 200.
At that time one soldier said students sparked the carnage by seizing an army tank and opening fire on the troops, using the vehicle’s mounted PKT machinegun, an AK-47 derivative. He however would not say why he brought a battle tank for civilian crowd control.
In the 1980s Afghan Islamic Mujahedeen fighters, armed with earlier versions of the AK-47, fought Soviet troops who were armed with the latest AKS-74. The fighters, who included wanted Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, scored major victories against the superpower Soviet army and ultimately overthrew the Kremlin installed communist regime.
The AK-47 features in the current Iraqi imbroglio, where it is often used to spray crowded marketplaces with automatic fire. The UN says over 30 000 Iraqis died from gunshot wounds last year, most of which were inflicted through the AK-47. Executed ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein so loved the AK-47 that he had his own made of gold and displayed in his Baghdad palace. Upon his defeat the prized weapon was seized by the Americans and its location is not clear.
In Afghanistan, where the ousted Taliban gunmen have vowed to return to power, and in Palestine and Lebanon, brother shoots brother with an AK-47 in convoluted political squabbles. It is also the prime weapon against Israeli occupation in Palestine.
The Kalashnikov also featured prominently in the 1991-95 Balkan war, where some of the world’s most chilling atrocities were committed. Gunmen often rounded up hundreds of people and executed them in a hail of AK-47 fire.
Between the 1960s and 1980s African liberation forces used it to end colonialism, most prominently in Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Upon independence the Mozambican FRELIMO liberation movement incorporated the image of an AK-47 in their flag to symbolize its importance in their struggle for freedom. In South Africa, in the hands of MK and the APLA, the AK-47 helped to force apartheid rulers to the negotiating table, paving the way for democratic rule.
Ex-Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong’s declaration that ‘power grows out of the barrel of a gun’ motivated many of the guerillas, who often reworded it to mean it did not ‘grow out of any kind of gun’ saying it actually ‘grows out of the barrel of the AK-47’. Other motivators were Bolivian legendary guerilla Ernesto Che Guevara and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who also used AK-47s in their heydays.
The liberation movements also used the Kalashnikov against each other after attaining independence, notably in Angola and Mozambique, which included the death of hundreds of thousands of people and ruining the economies. Another conflict where the gun served diligently was in Liberia, where the fighting started in December 1989, lapsed in 1996, resumed in 1999 and went on up to 2003. By that time it was reported that nearly every 12 year-old boy there had an AK-47, and the country had been destroyed.
The Sierra Leone civil war of 1991-2002 had similar features, with AK-47 toting child soldiers committing indescribable atrocities. The same happened in the Ivory Coast insurrection of 2002-06, where untold savagery was reported.
In that conflict it emerged that warlords like ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor bought the AK-47s with illegal diamonds; then passed them on to rebels in neighbouring countries, who caused untold suffering to civilians. Taylor is currently on trial for alleged crimes against humanity at The Hague, and is expectedly denying the charges. His arms supplier Guus van Kouwenhoven was jailed in the Netherlands. That also led to governments and diamond organizations to tighten laws to prevent the proliferation of what came to be known as ‘blood diamonds’.
On 22 February 2002 Angolan troops killed Angolan UNITA rebel chief Jonas Savimbi in a nasty AK-47 duel at the banks of the Luvuei River in Moxico province, in which his 21 bodyguards ‘fought to the last man’. That killing paved the way for peace, as world opinion had long labelled Savimbi a stumbling block for negotiations.
In 1994 the Kalashnikov also featured in the unprecedented Rwandan massacres, however assisted by machetes and pangas in the beastly butchering of nearly a million people. Soon after the plane that carried Rwandan ex-president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian leader Cyprian Ntaryamira was downed on April 6 1994, killing both leaders, some news reports suggested that the aircraft might not have been hit by anti-aircraft fire, as both the Rwandan army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels denied deploying their Zsu air defence guns in the vicinity.
That was quite plausible because the Rwandan air force was not very active against the rebels during much of that conflict. So that left the AK-47 and its variants likely responsible for the downing of the plane, and the subsequent reprisals that led to the bloodshed. This of course does not rule out the possibility of SAM 7 rockets having been used.
In the ongoing conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Janjaweed militia and the local gunmen confront each other using the AK-47, which they often turn onto innocent civilians. The same happens in Somalia and eastern DR Congo, where rebel Colonel Laurent Nkunda is determined to emulate the late Angolan insurgent Jonas Savimbi.
In South Africa robbers often use it together with its sub-clone, the R5, in cash-in-transit heists and other violent crime. In Colombia drug mafias use the AK-47, however often in conjunction with the American M-16 and the Israeli Uzi, to protect their interests. Some of the cartels pose as armed political movements and fight government forces that interfere in their illicit trade.
The AK-47 has an amazing manner of changing hands. In the 1980s Israel captured AK-47s from Palestinian PLO fighters and gave them to apartheid South Africa, who passed them on to Angolan UNITA rebels. South Africa also captured AK-47s from Namibian SWAPO guerillas and gave them to Mozambican RENAMO rebels, in its policy of destabilizing the neighbouring states who opposed apartheid rule.
Earlier, during the Zimbabwean liberation war, the Rhodesian army seized AK-47s from ZIPRA and ZANLA guerillas, and gave them to the fledgling Mozambican RENAMO reactionary group, setting it up as a formidable and highly atrocious armed movement. During the civil wars in Mozambique and Angola, government troops also used AK-47s, which gave the rebels the opportunity to brag to ignorant villagers that they armed themselves with weapons they captured from government forces.
In the late 1980s Zimbabwean Super ZAPU rebels benefited from a similar arrangement with the South African secret service. Nonetheless, a 1988 political settlement between the rival PF-ZAPU and ZANU-PF politicians prevented the development of an imbroglio to the magnitude of what was happening in Mozambique. That also ended a brutal insurgency and state counter-insurgency that left thousands of civilians dead; in which the AK-47 played the main killing role.
At about the same time thousands of Kalashnikovs from the Ugandan military were reportedly transferred to the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army fighters. Conversely, AK-47s formerly in the hands of Sudanese government troops were said to have ended up with the murderous Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army; and recently with the Janjaweed militia, which the Sudanese government however vehemently denies.
The UN and Amnesty International have indicated that the AK-47s arming Somali gunmen largely originated from overthrown dictator Siad Barre’s armed forces, while more were brought from neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea. The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) blames Eritrea, Iran and Yemen among other countries for violating the arms embargo on Somalia.
Besides its prominence in the 17 year Somali bloodshed, the AK-47 also features in the hands of pirates along the Somalian coastline. The gunmen hijack ships in the Indian Ocean and demand ransom of up to US$7 million. In May last year they seized a Taiwanese vessel and murdered a crew member to force the ship’s owners to pay up.
That has solicited global alarm since 2005, when the World Food Programme (WFP) suspended food deliveries by sea for several weeks. WFP spokesperson Josette Sheeran said the buccaneers in speedboats mounted with Kalashnikov machineguns hijacked one of their chartered ships and murdered a guard.
“This increases commodity prices for the poor Somalis, as insurance and protection expenses rise. That may also lead to cut-offs in food supplies to them,” Sheeran warned.
Uganda and Rwanda provided the AK-47s used by Congolese rebels to overthrow ex-Zairean (DR Congo) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko; and also to turn against their former friend, Laurent Kabila, who succeeded him. The ensuing fighting sucked in Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, whose troops, also armed with Kalashnikovs, helped Kabila remain in power, albeit for a while. One of his men later shot him dead, with an AK-47.
The gun’s designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov, born in 1919 in the Russian village of Kurya, a self taught engineer, learned mechanics when he worked at a train depot. As a Russian Red Army tank unit commander during the Second World War in 1941, he was wounded in battle, and while in hospital conceived the idea of designing his own gun.
The Russian army’s urgent need for a simple weapon with a high volume of fire motivated Kalashnikov; since the 1939-40 war with Finland, in which the Finns devastated the Russians with submachineguns in close combat; and in 1941 when German troops invaded Russia.
Kalashnikov was however not the first to respond to that need. It was Georgii Shpagin who designed the light PPSh-41, which was cheaper and quicker to make. Its magazine was a 71 round Suomi drum; providing only high rate automatic fire, without a fire selector.
Six years later Kalashnikov unveiled the ‘Automat Kalashnikova, model 1947’, the AK-47.
Up to the late 1950s the PPSh-41 was phased out of Soviet military service, in favour of the AK-47. Shpagin’s gun is nonetheless still active in some hotspots today.
The AK-47 was initially developed for motorized infantry and adopted in 1949. It was a gas-operated selective-fire weapon which fired 7.62mm bullets, housed in a 30 round curved box magazine.
Of the two early versions one had a fixed wooden stock, and the other, the AKS, a folding metal one, for use by paratroopers and armoured regiments. In 1951 it became the standard Soviet army weapon.
In 1959 the Soviets developed the AKM, weighing a kilogram less; made from stamped sheet metal, replacing the forged steel. The hand guard, pistol grip and butt were laminated wood, replacing the solid wood. It provided a fire control lever near the trigger, and a rear sight graduated to 1 000 metres, approved for Soviet army use in 1961.
Later Kalashnikov developed a machinegun variant of his AK-47, the Ruchnoi Pulemyot Kalashnikova, the RPK; and another belt-fed one called the Pulemyot Kalashnikova, the PK. Between 1950 and 1970, Kalashnikov’s guns were produced in a series, which included the AKM, AKMS, AK-74, AKS-74, AK-74U, RPK, RPRS, RPK-74, RPKS-74, PK, PKS, PKM, PKSM, PKT, PKTM, PKB and the PKMB. Up to 1990 over 70 million different designs had been produced.
More versions were manufactured in Eastern Europe and Asia: the Hungarian AMD; Czech V258P; former East German MpiK; Polish PMK; Bulgarian PMKm and the Yugoslavian M70. The short barreled Chinese Type 56 and North Korean Type 68 have been popular with gangsters and terrorists, as they can be easily concealed in clothing.
Variants of Kalashnikov machineguns were produced in 1961: the PKB for use on armoured carriers, the PKT for tank use and the PKS heavy machine gun. The long barreled Yugoslavian PKM, commonly known as the Yugo, has been a favourite for African and Asian gunmen. Its concentration of fire has not been matched by any other light machinegun, including the RPD, the Goryunov, the DshK or NATO models.
In 1990 the AK-74M was produced, and in the next year the RPK-74M light machinegun also emerged. Up to this moment there is the 100 series AK-47s in production. Those include the AK101, AK102, AK103, AK104 and AK105.
All AK-47s function normally after being handled roughly, like being immersed in mud or water. The initial test included dragging it behind a truck for over a kilometre, and it still worked properly. The fully chromed barrel provides for effective operation at extremely low temperatures, and can be cleaned by merely dragging a banana frond through it. In African conflicts rebels are often seen toting some of the earliest versions of the AK-47, which were produced before their fathers were born, the butt completely worn out, or the pistol grip having long broken off; but the weapon functions perfectly.
Kalashnikovs fire in semi-automatic and automatic mode, with a range of about 300 metres. They can fire about 600 bullets per minute, practically 100 rounds in automatic, or 40 in semi-automatic.
During the Cold War the Kalashnikov faced rivals in weapons that were associated with the ‘free world’, as opposed to the ‘communist world’. Many NATO aligned forces in Africa used the Belgian FN-FAL, or the ‘Fabrique Nationale-Fusil Automatique Léger’.
The colonial troops of Angola, Mozambique and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) however loathed the FN-FAL for its inclination to jam in wet conditions. It was the same with the West German G3, but their commanders would not directly change to the AK-47, ostensibly owing to Western policies that shunned association with the ‘communist weapon’, the AK-47. They rather used the Armalite AR-10, the M-16 and the Uzi, or even the old Lee Enfield .303, which was almost useless in that kind of combat.
In 1969 the Israeli military adopted the Galil rifle; a design based on the Finnish Valmet RK-62, itself an AK-47 copy. Sub-clones of the AK-47 are the South African modifications of the Galil; the Galil AR, or R4; the Galil SAR, or R5 and the Galil MAR, or R6; made by DENEL’s Vektor Arms. The Croatian APS-95 is another variant of the Galil.
In 1980 the South African army replaced the R1, a clone of the FN-FAL, with the R4, an AK-47 derivative. To this Mikhail Kalashnikov lamented that the manufacturers did not even thank him after ‘stealing his design’.
For his contribution to the arms industry the Soviet government conferred to him the Stalin Prize in 1949; the Soviet Russian Hero of Socialist Labour Award in 1958; promoted him to the rank of colonel in 1969; and granted him a Technical Sciences doctorate in 1971.
He again won the Hero of Socialist Labour Award in 1976. He was also awarded three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Patriotic War First Class, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and more medals. His bronze statue was erected at his native village in 1980, and in 1998 he was awarded the Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclete.
In his 75th birthday late Russian ex-president Boris Yeltsin awarded him the Order for Distinguished Service for the Motherland-Second Class, and promoted him to major-general.
In 2004 Kalashnikov toured Western Europe promoting his Kalashnikov Vodka, in a bottle shaped like his AK-47. When London reporters suggested he must feel bad that his invention kills so many people, Kalashnikov argued that people killed each other even before the gun was invented. “Human nature, being so evil, would still come up with something else with which to kill each other, maybe something even worse. I however regret that terrorists also use my gun,” he said.
He also denied making any money from the weapons, saying he survives from a miserly pension.
Quite unexpectedly, Russian special forces have ditched his AK-47 in favour of the AN-94, the ‘Automat Nikonova’ designed by Gennady Nikonov in 1994. It however costs six times more to produce. Its mechanism is complex, with an uncomfortable pistol grip and folding stock that covers the trigger, making it unusable when folded.
In October 2006 the UN passed a resolution towards a treaty to regulate arms trading to prevent guns from falling into the hands of gunmen. Members would start work on an arms treaty to regulate the flow of weapons that fuel conflicts, like the AK-47, which would provide legally binding safeguards for the import and export of the weapons.
Nonetheless, while countries that included the UK and the EU voted for the motion, Russia and China, the chief producers of the AK-47, abstained, which could reduce the effectiveness of the resolution. The US, another major weapons provider, voted against the idea, saying it already has its own high standards of controlling the weapons trade.
International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) director Rebecca Peters said up to April last year member states submitted their views on the feasibility, scope and parameters of the proposed treaty to the UN secretary-general. Under the Control Arms umbrella, IANSA, Amnesty International and Oxfam, launched a worldwide campaign.
The matter is to be presented to the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) as the next phase of the process. “The emphasis is on regional and national initiatives. West Africa’s new convention is the third sub-regional small arms agreement in the continent, after those in Eastern and Southern Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa must now amend its national policies to meet the new regional standards,” she added.
By Harrison Ndlovu
Reprinted from Homeless Talk
moreFROM CHOPPERTECH
BEAVERS LOG BOOK
AIR TASK 768 HURRICANE NEAR MTOKO/NYADIRI RIVER GAP 12/1/1978
K CAR CHAS GOATLEY AND FLAME FLEMING
K CAR FRANCOIS DU TOIT AND TECH UNK
G CAR NORMAN MAASDORP AND HENRY JARVIE
G CAR AL THOROUGHGOOD AND TECH UNK
TECHNICIANS, FLAME FLEMING AND HENRY JARVIE KIA
After having completed a marathon bush trip which had taken me across Rhodesia, my Squadron Warrant Officer; Barry Ord ordered me back to New Sarum from Mtoko for some badly needed R and R.
The Changeover Dakota arrived on the 11th January 1978 and Flight Sergeants Flame Fleming and Henry Jarvie arrived to relieve us.
I was flying with Chas Goatley in the K Car; and Flamo took over from me.
Little did I know that he would be dead in the next few hours? (Flames father and mine worked for the Veterinary Department in Rhodesia)
Fireforce were called out to a scene and during this scene, the Army K Car commander Lieutenant Adams was wounded in the hand and was not able to continue running the battle.
He was transferred to a G Car flown by Luigi Mantovani, the G Car came under intense fire as it lifted off with the casevac and was grounded on return to Mtoko.
Francois du Toit took over the Stop groups on the ground as he was an experienced Fireforce operator and continued to command the Fireforce operation until it ended.
Chas Goatley and his Gunner in the K Car; with Norman Maasdorp and his technician Henry Jarvie were air ambushed as they flew through the Nyadiri River gap West of Mtoko a few minutes flying away from the FAF.
Flame had leant forward to look through the centre Perspex window when he was hit in the head by an AK round.
Fireforce heard about the incident and Norman and Henry returned to Mtoko to refuel and pick up an RAR stick and deploy to the Nyadiri river gap to carry out a follow up of the CT’s.
Chas Goatley had returned to the ambush area was flying in the K Car and running the scene, he guided Norman into an LZ.
As Norman and Henry’s G Car flared to land they were fiercely attacked by an RPD gunner.
Henry was hit and slumped into the middle of the helicopter behind his guns.
The instrument panel vibrated fiercely, as it was shot to smithereens by the intense incoming machine gun fire.
Due to his wounds Norman was unable to walk, so he crawled around the G Car to attend to Henry, however when he got to him he heard a loud gushing noise and could see fuel pouring out of the ruptured tank.
He could also see that Henry was dead!
He crawled back to the stick leader and gave him some painkillers… while he contacted Al Thorogood to casevac them on the stick leaders radio.
Norman was casevaced with the RAR stick and on arrival at Mtoko found that his legs and heel were peppered with shrapnel from the RPD.
The pedal area of the Alouette was peppered with machine gun bullets and shrapnel; and it was a miracle that Norman was not killed in this action.
That night one of the sticks who had been left in overnight ambush by Francois du Toit in K Car was attacked by about 20 CT’s and an RAR soldier killed in the fire fight.
It had been a frustrating and equally worse day for the Rhodesian Security forces.
As for me, I had survived by a hair and I knew it, the shock of it began to tell.
I started questioning myself, as to whether we could sustain all this war and terror, and how it would all end up.
LEOPARD ROCK ATTACK
In January 1978, a group of thirty terrorists approached the Leopard Rock Hotel outside Umtali and began firing AK 47 rifles and RPG 7 rockets at the hotel from a distance of 100 meters away. A rocket hit a turret of the hotel and went through exploding in a vacant room.
A second rocket struck the hotel’s roof and damaged the water mains.
There were only eight guests staying in the hotel and some of these guests managed to return fire at the terrorists.
After this attack we were banned from going to the hotel while on Fireforce duty at Grand Reef.
BEAVERS LOG BOOK
BEATRICE CALL OUT 6/1/78
AIR TASK 767 SALOPS BEATRICE 6/1/1978
G CAR 5277 CHRIS MILBANK AND BEAVER SHAW
I CT KILLED TRACKER DOGS USED IN FOLLOW UP
I was on stand by on Seven Squadron on the morning of the 6th January 1978 enjoying a day at the pool, when the duty officer called and told me to stand by and prepare a G Car for a possible scene which was brewing in the Beatrice area.
I pulled the stand by G Car out of the hangar and prepped it for operations; and within a few minutes was met at the heli-pad by Chris Milbank, who would be my pilot on the operation. Soon afterwards we were airborne setting course for the Beatrice Police Station where we were to uplift a dog handler with his dogs to join a PATU stick in the Beatrice farming area that were following up a group of terrorists.
We refuelled at the police station and headed back to the PATU Sparrow (tracker) stick; who reported that they were about five minutes behind a group of four terrorists who were moving in an easterly direction.
We dropped off the dog handler and his two Labrador retrievers and began circling ahead of the stick in an attempt to bring the terrorists to ground.
After some time orbiting over savannah bushveld, we noticed that the long grass had been trampled in the direction of a thick clump of trees.
Chris pulled the G Car up into an overhead firing pattern and instructed me to put some clearing fire into the thicket with my twin .303 Browning machine guns.
I fired a burst into the target area; and as the rounds impacted into the trees we came under small arms fire from that location.
I could hear the rounds cracking as they passed our helicopter.
Suddenly a terrorist made a break from the thicket and attempted to run into a stream bed, he was armed with a folding butt AK 47 assault rifle.
“Fuck you”, I yelled over the intercom; as I raked him with a long burst from my Browning’s.
The terrorist disappeared into a cloud of dust and I saw him lying prone with his weapon lying about a meter from his lifeless body.
We turned back to the thicket and dropped a white smoke generator into it and gave the area another few bursts of machine gun fire, this time all was quiet.
We spoke the trackers on to the target area and commenced a sweep of the thicket and stream bed but came up with nothing.
It appeared that the terrorists had bomb shelled.
After some extensive sweeping, and letting the dog’s loose we called it a day and recovered all, including the terrorist and his weapon back to Beatrice.
CASEVACS AND DOGS 6-9 February 1978 -FROM THE BOOK, “AIRSTRIKE” BY PROP GELDENHUYS
AIR TASK 777 CONTACT C/S 14 AND 42 TROOPING C/S 43A
G CAR 5729 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW
DEPLOY DOGS, TOP COVER AND CASEVAC LANDMINE VICTIM
Due to the march of time I cannot recall this time
HELICOPTERS DAMAGED IN FIREFORCE ACTION
27th January 1978
Mike Borlace and I were involved with 2 RAR, the text has been extracted from: The War Diaries of Andre Dennison; to describe the actions which followed.
On 27th January 1978, (by now fully operational), the Scouts called us in on a sighting of ten CT’s, in a camp a few miles east of Enkeldoorn.
We had time to dispatch a road party with fuel and the second wave of troops, everything appeared to be set up for a big culling scene.
However the road party was late in arriving, and as K Car One got into the orbit over the target area it collected a mean snot-squirt, warning lights for Africa blossomed over the panel, and Nick Meikle made an immediate emergency landing in a mealie field.
The OC, Dennison transferred to K Car 2, and directed the two G Cars to land sticks. The second G Car pranged on landing, the rotors taking off the tail rotor and totally immobilizing the aircraft.
At this time the paras were dropped and the sweeping started, Stops One and Two contacted a large group of AMA/AFAs (African Male and Female adults)
In the camp area four AMAs were killed; and six AFA/AMJs (African Male Juveniles) killed; with three AMAs who had surrendered.
The call-sign then came under point blank RPK (machine gun) fire and 2Lt Biffen had a close shave when a bullet creased his FN barrel, bulging it badly, two CT’s broke West and were unsuccessfully engaged by K Car Two and a G Car.
One of the CTs was pinned down in some rocks, and Stop 3 were flown in, who flushed him out and killed him, recovering an AK. These were our first OP Grapple kills.
It was later established that one of the dead AMAs was a CT, and that the captured AMAs, by inference, (the dead ones), had received local training. The Scouts later established that three wounded CTs were evacuated that night by vehicle.
Note:
The Selous Scouts records, date this contact as 28th January, as the wounded and the dead were always flown in to a Selous Scout Fort for examination, investigation and interrogation in the case of the living; by Special Branch attached to the Scouts, these records were normally accurate.
The records relate that one of Corporal Croukamp’s sub call-signs, callsign One Three Echo, visited a village in the guise of a survivor from the main contact on the 24thJanuary.
In the general conversation that took place the villagers mentioned that another group of terrorists had based up near the village. The commander of call-sign One Three Echo then carried out a one man reconnaissance and duly located five terrorists based up at UQ055023.
The Fireforce, commanded by Andre Dennison was called, arrived and the contact ensued; in the course of which the aircraft were hit. There were ten terrorists in the base, one of which was killed and four captured.
After these contacts a great deal of information was gleaned by the Selous Scouts callsigns who had called in the Fireforce, as unless they were compromised, they would remain in the area posing as survivors.
CHAPTER TWELVE
STRIKE FORCE, BEIT BRIDGE-COL RICH
My deployment to Strike Force in Beitbridge was to be an interesting time because it was my first time to be living with the Army in their environment in a battle camp.
Our Strike force was commanded by Colonel Rich who was based with us in a camp in the Mtetengwe TTL; just outside of Beitbridge.
We were supported by members of 2 Commando RLI only our G Car in support. We were based in a tented camp and in typical army fashion all ranks were separated according to seniority, rank wise..
I was a corporal at the time but wore Sergeant Stripes in the bush as it was much more comfortable to be in the Army Sergeants mess with batmen taking care of you in the field than struggling along with the junior ranks.
I did not enjoy living with the army very much due to the split messing and the rank discrimination however while camping on this tour I met up with Stu Hammond and Al Parsons who made the evenings in the Sergeants mess bearable with their constant banter.
Our task was to carry out relay changes on a regular basis and to carry out trooping and casualty evacuations if required.
We were also to give top cover to the troopies on the ground when they came into contact with terrorists.
I remember spending my time on this deployment with Dutch De Klerk, Stu Hammond, Alan Parsons and Buzzard Doulgeris
.
I can also remember that digital watches had just come out; and were the rave at the time, Keith Spence, my pilot had just returned from South Africa and was sporting a new Seiko digital watch around camp… like a rat with a gold tooth.
While on this deployment we were sent to casevac a Police reserve callsign which had been involved in a fleeting contact with a group of terrorists and one of the reservists had been shot in the face and it appeared that he had lost an eye; but would survive.
I took my flak vest off during the flight to Messina in South Africa and shielded him from the wind.
During our Beitbridge deployment we had a few great evenings in town at the local club where I was lucky enough to meet one of the local farmer’s daughters Mimi, who worked as a radio operator with the BSAP.
We also frequented the Customs and Excise club and were given bottles of brandy and Coco Rico, which was the drink of the day.
I also met Ed Byrd who was our Special Branch contact in the area and Ed was a mine of information on the area; and which terrorist groups were operating locally.
During this deployment to Beitbridge we met up with some members of the Air Force regiment who were based at Beitbridge. Their leader an Air Force VR Sergeant asked Mike Borlace if we would be kind enough to spend some time giving the VR’s trooping drills with the G Car so that they could be of use if required in a call out.
Mike agreed; and we arrived at their small base near the Bridge and briefed them on
trooping drills; and the art of emplaning and deplaning from a helicopter while armed.
The VR Sergeant looked fierce wearing his combat kit and armed with an MAG machine gun and his ammunition belts draped all over his body like an RAR recruiting poster.
We boarded the stick and practised drills for a while and when we had completed the exercise flew the stick back to their base.
The stick leader saw the convoy to South Africa, parked near their base awaiting clearance to cross the border and asked Mike if they could do a hover drop near the convoy to impress the onlookers in the convoy.
We went into an orbit and came in for the drop, our Sergeant was a little too keen to impress the crowd and bailed out of our G Car at about fifteen feet above the ground… landed on his feet, but due to the height and weight of his MAG, collapsed in a heap injuring his back.
We landed next to him, I got out and extracted a stretcher and with assistance of the remainder of his stick; placed him on board the G Car and casevaced him to Messina hospital in South Africa.
I wonder what went through the minds of those onlookers in the convoy…
BEAVERS LOGBOOK
G CAR 5817 18/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING AND RELAY CHANGE BEITBRIDGE AREA
G CAR 5817 19/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING BEITBRIDGE AREA
G CAR 5817 20/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING BEITBRIDGE AREA
G CAR 5817 22/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING BEITBRIDGE AREA
G CAR 5817 24/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW RELAY CHANGE
G CAR 5817 25/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW CASEVAC AND TROOPING
G CAR 5817 25/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING STRIKE FORCE
G CAR 5817 26/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW BEITBRIDGE-SALISBURY AIRCRAFT CHANGE
G CAR 5729 26/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW SALISBURY BEITBRIDGE
G CAR 5729 26/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING STRIKE FORCE
G CAR 5729 28/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING STRIKE FORCE
G CAR 5729 29/01/1978 KEITH SPENCE AND BEAVER SHAW TROOPING STRIKE FORCE
G CAR 5729 01/02/1978 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW TELSTAR AND TOP COVER FOR C/S 32
G CAR 5729 01/02/1978 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW GUN TEST 500 RDS .303 BROWNING
G CAR 5729 03/02/1978 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW RELAY RESUPPLY C/S 28
G CAR 5729 03/02/1978 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW TULI-VEHICLE AMBUSH-TODDS-BEITBRIDGE
G CAR 5729 04/02/1978 MIKE BORLACE AND BEAVER SHAW RELAY RESUPPLY
JON KENNERLEY AND FARMER ABDUCTIONS
An incident that hounded me for many years finally came to light during research for Choppertech was that of Jon Kennerley.
Jon Kennerley was working for the Bulawayo Chronicle as a compositor and had taken a few days leave from his regular night-shift with the newspaper to visit his father, who worked in Beitbridge as a vehicle Inspector.
Jon managed to hitch a ride in a Ward’s Transport pantechnicon and they headed for Bulawayo on the afternoon of the 5th February 1978.
Mike Borlace, myself with Mike’s dog; Doris, flew over the pantechnicon about 20 kilometres outside Beitbridge and we could clearly see Jon waving at us as we flew over them.
About 12 kilometres outside Beitbridge a group of terrorists stopped the pantechnicon on the main road adjacent to the Mtengwetengwe tribal trust lands; they robbed the driver and his assistant of $30 and abducted Jon Kennerley at about 18h30 in the evening.
Mike Borlace had positioned at the Drummond’s farm in West Nicholson and was told (later that evening), to return to Beitbridge at first light the next day to carry out a follow-up on the abduction.
The terrorists hid Jon in some huts in the Mtengwetengwe TTL; and waited for the follow-up to settle down then moved him from village to village at night to avoid contact with us.
Mike Borlace, myself and our stick of troops from 1 Indep. Coy; RAR were in the G Car; we scoured the area in search of Jon, dropping the troops into villages and constantly checking for any signs of him; but to no avail, however while in the process of our search we made contact with other groups of terrorists in the area; and had some lively contacts.
Jon at this time was hidden deep in the TTL and had his first meal consisting of sadza, chicken and dried milk,(a day after his abduction when things had quietened down)
On the third day Jon was handed over to a new group of terrorists who took his money and bought tins of meat and biscuits from a store.
Five days after his abduction Jon managed to escape from his captors who had relaxed and fell asleep. Jon ran from the village where they had been hiding and wandered about in the TTL looking for water, as this area of Rhodesia is semi desert.
He walked into a village and asked for water; (there was actually a small river nearby) and was told by the locals of the river. As he was crossing the river he heard shots and was recaptured by the terrorists who were enraged with him for escaping.
The terrorists bound his hands with donkey hide straps and his feet with a belt and returned to the village.
That night Jon attempted to escape again but due to being tied up made too much noise which alerted his guard who threw water over the donkey hide straps as punishment for his attempts at escape.
The straps contracted at night and in the morning his hands had swollen terribly leaving him in excruciating pain.
It took sixteen days; from that village for the terrorists to extract Jon into Mozambique and when the group crossed the Nuanetsi River Jon had another go at escape and was caught once again.
This time the terrorists made him walk for six days without shoes walking barefoot with water up to his chest at times and other times walking through very long grass.
When Jon was interrogated by the terrorists he told them that he was in the RLI, however he was too young to serve in the Rhodesian Security forces at that time.
Jon fed the terrorists with a lot of lies and stories which they believed.
Once in Mozambique Jon was whisked away to Chimoio; where he was interrogated once again. He was also given the use of a small transistor radio by his captors.
Five months later Jon was moved to another camp (Tembue) where he met up with an Afrikaner, who had also been abducted by the name of Johannes Maartens.
Jon was to form a strong bond with the old man and called him “Oupa”. (Grandad) Who had been abducted from his farm in Headlands on 18th May 1978. Johannes a 54 year old farmer; and father of seven, was unarmed and attending to his farm in his vehicle; when he was surrounded by a group of terrorists. This group took 9 days to move the sickly old man with a heart condition into Mozambique. The terrorists were aware of his condition and took care to carry his pack and give him frequent rests during which time they assured Johannes that; they were not racists and did not wish to expel all whites from Rhodesia.
The deeply religious Johannes told them that they were being seriously manipulated by Communist ideologies, to which they laughed.
Tembue camp was attacked by the Rhodesian Security forces in July and Jon recalls the camp being “Revved” from his position behind a clump of rocks about 500 meters away from the strike. He says “It was a beautiful sight”.
By this time Jon had befriended his captors and it appeared that they had become quite fond of him.
Food was always a problem; and Jon assisted by catching lizards and tortoises which he said were good eating.
While Jon was abducted we had a few contacts with terrorist groups in the Mtengwetengwe TTL, and in Mozambique, where we found documents and letters about Jon. I was constantly looking out for him and wanted to know the outcome of his abduction. We missed rescuing him a few times; when we were searching for him in the Mtengwetengwe TTL.
A retired British Army Colonel; by the name of Major Thomas Wigglesworth was abducted on the 1st August 1978 from the Penhalonga farming area.
Maj. Wigglesworth was farming fruit and vegetables when the terrorists struck, he returned home from the fields one morning; and was knocked down by a terrorist when he got out of his vehicle.
The terrorists told him that they would have shot him if he had been holding a weapon.
The terrorists took Wigglesworth to his homestead where they looted him of foodstuff, typewriters, a sewing machine and the Major’s war medals. One of the terrorist’s pinned the medals to his chest and swaggered about with them which annoyed the old man who could only just watch and take the abuse.
The group then took Wigglesworth captive and headed west; which was away from the border, for three days and held him in a camp.
During his abduction Wigglesworth had hidden a revolver and attempted to use it, when he was caught reaching for it he was brutally beaten by the terrorists.
After this time; the group made a forced march to Vila Manica which was hard on the old man who hurt his leg, ankle and foot in the process.
During the forced march Wigglesworth saw the lights of Umtali, antagonizingly close by as they made their way to the border.
Whenever the group stopped Wigglesworth was handcuffed to one of the terrorists as a precaution.
When his morale dropped the terrorists reminded him of his war days and said that he must resist as it was a time of war.
Wigglesworth had a hard time when he first arrived in Mozambique; he found eating sadza disgusting and his captors could only speak Portuguese.
He was moved to Chimoio sometime later by Land Rover.
At Chimoio he met up with Johannes Maartens and Jon Kennerley, there was also a gentleman who had been abducted from Melsetter by the name of James Black.
The abductees were interrogated by a ZANLA Cadre called Lameck who had been trained in China.
Jon says that this interrogator tended to write down the answers to his own questions before the abductees could reply.
The white captives were visited by many senior ZANU commanders and politicians who included Rex Nhongo, Tongogara, Tungamirai, Munangagwa and Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe asked Wigglesworth why he did not eat sadza on one occasion.
The abductees struggled with food and their health problems which were not helped by flies, mopani flies and tsetse flies and a host of mosquitoes.
The abductees also had to suffer jigger fleas, leeches, snakes, scorpions and a host of nasty insects.
Due to the constant external raids by Rhodesian security forces in the area, the group of abductees were moved to a camp in the bush near Tete on 4th October, where they remained incarcerated for the next three months.
In P.J.H. Petter-Bowyer’s book Winds of Destruction he mentions that the Rhodesian security forces were disappointed that they did not find the abductees in the camps which were attacked, however some documentation relating to them was found.
The following text has been extracted from his book: -
There was considerable disappointment in not finding the four abductees the troops had hoped to rescue. However amongst the piles and piles of captured documents, SB came upon records dated three weeks earlier in which four captured whites were listed as:
John HERNLEY. Place of residence –Bulawayo. Date of capture 5.2.78(Note ZANLA erred in their spelling, it should have read Kennerley).
Johannes Hendrik MAARTENS. Place of residence – Maringoyi Farm, Headlands. Date of capture -2.8.78.
Thomas WIGGLESWORTH. Place of residence –Odzani, Umtali. Date of capture – 2.8.78
James BLACK. Place of residence –Martin Forest, Melsetter. Date of capture -19.8.78
Military ribbons and medals belonging to Thomas Wigglesworth were recovered from the personal belongings of a CT in Nehanda camp: the location known to have been where the abductees had been held. Fortunately, sufficient evidence was obtained for the Red Cross International to bring about the release of these men from the Tembue area where they had been taken.
Here I divert for a moment. The Rhodesian’s lack of knowledge concerning its enemy, particularly ZANLA, has already been touched upon, and I have told of my absolute fear and certainty of being killed if downed in Mozambique.
The release of these men made me wonder if I might have been wrong in believing the press and some political statements that was conveyed to Rhodesians the awful hardships that the abducted men must be facing.
Upon their release all these men said that they had been very well treated, particularly by Josiah Tongogara. Since first news of their release came from press interviews in the Polana Hotel in Maputo, obviously attended by ZANU and FRELIMO officials, no notice was taken of their good reports.
But then the Rhodesian Foreign Minister PK van der Byl introduced Maartens and Black at a press conference in Salisbury. This backfired on him to some extent because he was fully expecting to hear from these men what had been fed to the public.
Instead Maartens, who was under no pressure to say the “right thing”, repeated what he said in Maputo. When relating to the return of his medals in a book he wrote about his time with ZANLA, Thomas Wigglesworth records that the “truth is stranger than fiction...”
On the 21December they were flown to Maputo and incarcerated in a cell in Nampula. The men were devastated as they thought that they were going to be freed by ZANLA.
The group was then handed over to Amnesty International for release after having been briefed by Mugabe that they would become casualties of war if they returned to Rhodesia.
They all returned to Rhodesia, and after nearly thirty years; I found out what had become of the young guy who had waved at me from the pantechnicon.
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