Big counter-strike likely

Press, 9 August 1976, Page 8

Big counter-strike likely

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury Rhodesia might be building up towards a spectacular reply to operations by Mozambique’s Frelimo troops on Rhodesia’s eastern frontier, diplomatic sources said in Salisbury yesterday. Successive revelations over the previous 48 hours by the Rhodesian authorities concerning the Frelimo (Mozamjbique Liberation Front) offenisive, and the unusual publicity given to a brief incurIsion’ last week by a Frelimo [commando unit in the Rhodesian frontier operational zone, were seen as psychological preparation for a

counter-offensive which would make use of considerable military might. For the first time since the escalation this year of the guerrilla offensive, the Rhodesians were stressing the sophistication of the nationalists’ military equipment, which includes field mortars. 122 mm rockets, and now, 75 mm recoilless guns. They were also underlining the tactical quality of their operations. A military spokesman described the dawn attack on Thursday on a Rhodesian army camp on the frontier as a regular military operation

which must have been planned and controlled by Frelimo.

The attackers, numbering about 60, hit the camp with mortars, rockets, automatic fire. and. for the first time, their 75mm cannon, the spokesman said.

Rhodesia’s first black Roman Catholic archbishop, the Most Rev. Patrick Chakaipa, aged 44. was installed in an open-air ceremony in Salisbury in Saturday, watched by 20,000 people.

In his address after the installation, Archbishop Chakaipa said there was a need to spread unity in the coun-

try. “Let us love one another, let us work for one another, let us work for our country, our Church, and the whole world,” he said. The ceremony was staged at the Gwanzura Stadium in Salisbury’s Highfield African township. The crowd roared and applauded as 80 priests mounted the dais to pay homage to the new archbishop and a 2500-strong choir sang hymns. Archbishop Chakaipa. who has been auxiliary Bishop of Salisbury for the last two years, is tire, son of a tribesman.