EMERGENCY AREA IN S. RHODESIA

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30530, 27 August 1964, Page 13

EMERGENCY AREA IN S. RHODESIA

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY, August 26. Southern Rhodesia’s two African nationalist organisations, the People’s Caretaker Council and Zanu, have been banned and Salisbury’s African township of Highfield has been declared an emergency area.

Highfield has been cordoned off by police and troops, and some territorial troops have been called out. Ail Africans in Highfield township are being screened. The Minister of Law and Order, Mr D. W. Lardner-Burke, said the object was to arrest all thugs and criminals.

The People’s Caretaker Council is led by Mr Joshua Nkomo, who is in restriction in a remote area with most of his chief aides. The Zimbabwe African National Union is headed by the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, a former chief lieutenant of Mr Nkomo. He is on remand awaiting trial on charges under the Law and Order Maintenance Act. The state of emergency in Highfield will last for three months. Mr Lardner-Burke said the township had been the scene of considerable lawlessness for some time. The two rival organisations, the P.C.C. and Zanu, have indulged in intimidation and violence, not only against each other, but also against the law-abiding inhabitants, he said. “The object ,of the present operation is to arrest all thugs, hooligans and criminals, and thereby to restore normal living conditions for all citizens,” he said. .4 Lardner-Burke said the police were only concerned with weeding out lawless elements and they were there to protect those who had been the innocent victims of recent unrest. He said that the nationalist organisations were the main promoters of intimidation and violence in Highfield and throughout the country and had been banned because their activities, and the activities of their members, endangered public safety, disturbed and interfered with public order,, and were otherwise prejudicial to the security of Southern Rhodesia.