Mozambique town ‘destroyed’

Press, 11 June 1977, Page 6

Mozambique town ‘destroyed’

INZPA-Reuter Maputo, Mozambique rhe Mozambique town of Mapai was completely destroyed by Rhodesian troops who occupied it last week, according to a group of Mozambican journalists who visited the area. “Every single house has been razed to the ground by the Rhodesians,” one of them said on their return yesterday. Another said that Mapai did not exist any more.

The journalists also said the Rhodesian troops had shot all livestock, and destroyed storehouses, vehicles, and railway stations in their path. They said that the railway line linking Maputo to the Mapai area, about 80 km from the Rhodesian border, had been destroyed, and the Rhodesians had mined al! roads while retreating. The Mozambique News Agency reported that the Rhodesian Army had launched 120 armed aggressions against Mozambique in the last 17 months, 78 of them between January and March, this year. It said that 56 civilians and 49 Mozambican soldiers had died in the raids. In Victoria Falls, Rhodesia. I the Rhodesian leader, Mr| Ilan Smith, has declared that Ibis Government is dedicated ■to majority rule in Rhodesia —but that it must be “responsible majority rule” or else the country would carry on as it is how.

Mr Smith told a meeting of industrialists that there “must be a responsible settlement and responsible majority rule, not mob rule.”