Nkomo 's narrow escape
For the guerrillas of the Patriotic Front, nothing was more important than disrupting elections in Rhodesia that will usher in Prime Minister Ian Smith's version of black majority rule. For Smith and his three black colleagues in the interim government of the breakaway British colony, nothing was more essential than preventing the guerrillas from carrying out their plans. On the eve of balloting by the country's blacks, a heavily armed Rhodesian raiding party last week struck deeply into Zambia, which provides a headquarters and staging bases for 16,000 irregulars of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). In a lightning foray that underscored the feeble defenses of Rhodesia's black-ruled northern neighbor, the invaders overwhelmed a Zambian army base and razed Nkomo's home and headquarters. The suspicion was that the Rhodesians intended either to assassinate the portly nationalist leader or to take him back to Salisbury as a hostage.
The operation, which followed several devastating Rhodesian air attacks on other ZAPU camps in Zambia last week, began before dawn. A white-led force of Rhodesia's Special Air Service (SAS) commandos and black troops from the elite Selous Scouts slipped into Zambia, apparently by helicopter. The raiders attacked a military post near the border, commandeered several camouflaged Land Rovers and set out for Lusaka, 62 miles away. At about 3 a.m. they arrived in Woodlands, a section of Lusaka where Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda, several foreign diplomats and Nkomo maintain their homes. The Rhodesians killed Nkomo's drowsy bodyguards with a burst of machine-gun fire, scaled the 8-ft. fence surrounding his one-story stucco house and blew it up with explosives. Although Zambia had beefed up its defensive capabilities with a new supply of British weapons after a humiliating raid on ZAPU camps last October, the Rhodesians claimed that their men returned home without suffering a single death or injury.
Nkomo, who has changed his residence nightly as a security measure, later insisted that he had been at home as the attack began. "When the shooting started, I got out," Nkomo said. "I heard them yelling, 'Come out, you terrorists and your leader. We want to take him to Salisbury.' " That would undoubtedly have pleased Robert Mugabe, Nkomo's co-leader of the Patriotic Front, who was in Lusaka last week to attend a meeting of the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization. Mugabe's 8,500 Mozambique-based guerrillas have borne the brunt of the fighting inside Rhodesia, while most of Nkomo's larger and better equipped force has sat out the battle in Zambia.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920252,00.html#ixzz0zaq9m7Px
For the guerrillas of the Patriotic Front, nothing was more important than disrupting elections in Rhodesia that will usher in Prime Minister Ian Smith's version of black majority rule. For Smith and his three black colleagues in the interim government of the breakaway British colony, nothing was more essential than preventing the guerrillas from carrying out their plans. On the eve of balloting by the country's blacks, a heavily armed Rhodesian raiding party last week struck deeply into Zambia, which provides a headquarters and staging bases for 16,000 irregulars of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). In a lightning foray that underscored the feeble defenses of Rhodesia's black-ruled northern neighbor, the invaders overwhelmed a Zambian army base and razed Nkomo's home and headquarters. The suspicion was that the Rhodesians intended either to assassinate the portly nationalist leader or to take him back to Salisbury as a hostage.
The operation, which followed several devastating Rhodesian air attacks on other ZAPU camps in Zambia last week, began before dawn. A white-led force of Rhodesia's Special Air Service (SAS) commandos and black troops from the elite Selous Scouts slipped into Zambia, apparently by helicopter. The raiders attacked a military post near the border, commandeered several camouflaged Land Rovers and set out for Lusaka, 62 miles away. At about 3 a.m. they arrived in Woodlands, a section of Lusaka where Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda, several foreign diplomats and Nkomo maintain their homes. The Rhodesians killed Nkomo's drowsy bodyguards with a burst of machine-gun fire, scaled the 8-ft. fence surrounding his one-story stucco house and blew it up with explosives. Although Zambia had beefed up its defensive capabilities with a new supply of British weapons after a humiliating raid on ZAPU camps last October, the Rhodesians claimed that their men returned home without suffering a single death or injury.
Nkomo, who has changed his residence nightly as a security measure, later insisted that he had been at home as the attack began. "When the shooting started, I got out," Nkomo said. "I heard them yelling, 'Come out, you terrorists and your leader. We want to take him to Salisbury.' " That would undoubtedly have pleased Robert Mugabe, Nkomo's co-leader of the Patriotic Front, who was in Lusaka last week to attend a meeting of the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization. Mugabe's 8,500 Mozambique-based guerrillas have borne the brunt of the fighting inside Rhodesia, while most of Nkomo's larger and better equipped force has sat out the battle in Zambia.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920252,00.html#ixzz0zaq9m7Px
