More Rhodesian hangings feared

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34138, 27 April 1976, Page 20

More Rhodesian hangings feared

(By

KEN COATES)

Fears that increased guerrilla warfare along Rhodesia’s borders will result in more secret trials and hangings by the Smith Government have been expressed by the New Zealand section of Amnesty International.

The group is affiliated with the world-wide organisation which opposes oppressive regimes and works to free political prisoners whose basic rights have been ignored. In Rhodesia, it states, a person may be both tried and executed in secret. Amnesty International says that since 1965, more than 60 people are believed to have been hanged. The first executions, in 1968, brought a storm of international protest and led to economic sanctions against Rhodesia.

Before the hangings, the British Government reiterated the view that the Rhodesian Front regime could not lawfully carry out executions.

The Queen, whose position as Rhodesian head of State had not been challenged, exercised mercy and commuted the sentences of the first three men given the death-sentence.

But in spite of this, the three men were hanged — after the Rhodesian Chief Justice ruled that the Rhodesian Front had de facto authority to carry' out the hangings. ' The death penalty is widely used in Rhodesia. Under the Maintenance of Law and Order Act. amended many times to provide for more severe sentences, there are offences which mav incur the death sentence, as well as some which carrv a mandatory death penalty.

Possession of arms, acts of terrorism or harbouring guerrillas are offences which can involve a judge exercising discretion in deciding whether to impose a penalty of hanging. But for offences which include arson, the use of explosives or the recruitment of guerrillas, judges must impose the death sentence, whatever the particular circumstances.

Only pregnant women and children under 16 are excluded from execution, while youths between 16 and 19 may be either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.

While the Rhodesian Government’s right to execute at all has been legally challenged, the execution of political offenders has caused the greatest protest. Amnesty International states that since guerrilla warfare began in late 1972, the death penalty has been

used with increasing frequency. Both captured nationalist guerrilla fighters and African villagers alleged to have sheltered or assisted guerrillas have been sentenced to death at secret trials. Rhodesia’s laws also cast the onus of proof on to the accused person to demonstrate his innocence, rather than on to the State to prove guilt. This aspect of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act led the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Tredgold) to resign in protest against the act when it was first introduced.

Many of the people be* I iieved to have been executed; have either been captured' guerrilla fighters or individuals convicted of offences connected in some way With the guerrilla war. In the view of African i nationalists. according to i Amnesty International, ca- ' ptured guerrillas should be

regarded as prisoners of war, and treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

But the Rhodesian regime refutes this view, and continues to prosecute captured guerrillas under the common murder law, or under provisions of the Law and Order Act.

The then Rhodesian Minister for Law and Order (Mr Desmond Lardner-Burke) said last year that the Rhodesian authorities intended to withhold all details of further executions, as the issue had become “an emotive one.” i He said that when a death ; sentence had been passed and the appeal turned down, it should be presumed the prisoner would be executed.

Amenstv International comments: "It is impossible to know how many prisoners have since been executed.”