Big toll of women, children in village gun battle

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 8

Big toll of women, children in village gun battle

I International

NZPA Salisbury The Rhodesian Military Command has reported that 22 blacks, including nine women and two children, have been killed during a battle between security forces and black nationalist guerrillas.

i Villagers said that three l men, ten women, and nine children were slain. The action occurred on Saturday about 19km north of the centre of Salisbury, when security units patrolling a village in a tribal reservation spotted the guerj rillas, the military communique said. It did not say if 11 any Rhodesian soldiers were | (killed ot wounded. 11 The communique said the guerrillas opened fire first and in the ensuing action two males, nine women, and I two juveniles were killed. I | A hut caught fire and am-1 1 munition was heard to ex- ! I plode • within the hut, the] statement added. Nine un-l identified bodies were later! ’recovered from the hut. ] Reporters went to thej I area on Sunday and villagers; I told them a man, a woman, | and seven young girls died in the hut s Tribespeople’at the stric- ■ ken village, mourning their dead, told reporters that the i

security forces were responsible for the killings. They said that of the 22 dead, ail but three were women and children. Jairos Nyakudya. a 4(1- ; |vear-old villager, said white < ’soldiers dropped from four i helicopters anf stormed a house. He pointed to a brick 1 bungalow. Thirteen bodies were laid out in front of it. <

Behind the bungalow, two burned-out mud huts still (smouldered. I People ran from the house j ianc the soldiers shot them) [from the yard, Mr Nyakudya! isaid. ; The military communique! said that a search of the vil 1

lage had uncovered Com-munist-made weapons, loaded magazines, a mortar ! bomb, and a quantity of small arms and ammunition of Communist origin. It said the incident took j place on Saturday about 1.30

|p.m. “Security forces patrolling the T.T.L. (Tribal Trust I Land) north of Salisbury (sighted a group of armed j terrorists with civilians,” it

(said. ! “This group scattered on i the approach of the security forces and fire, was directea by the terrorists at the se curity forces. The terrorists were seen with others of the group of civilians to run into a nearby village.” The incident was the second of its kind involving civilians in less than a month. On May 14, 52 civil- | ians were reported killed and 14 wounded after being caught in cross-fire between troops and guerrillas near

Fort Victoria, south of Salisbury. Mr Nyakudya, said that 11 of those killed had been crammed into the kitchen of one house when it was fired on. They included at least two children, aged about three or four. “We saw a plane coming — then whoosh, there was an explosion” said Ben Mashonganvika, aged 50.

About 100 mourners gath ered in the village on Sun day, the women screaming and crying in their griel They sat among the bodies which had been covered lr rough blankets in the dust. Reporters at the village said two huts had been

• (burned out and two bungaI low-type homes shattered I with bullets. After the earlier killings ' near Fort Victoria, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, a member of the transitional Government’s supreme Executive 1 Council, said he had been informed by reliable sources]

that the true death toll was; far greater than the 52 announced. He implied that he believed security forces had been responsible, saying that ! not only external forces were I at work to frustrate last! I month’s cease-fire call (the Government. The Salisbury agreement setting up I the transitional Government i is opposed by the foreign-

based Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance. The deaths of the 22 plus eight guerrillas killed in a separate engagement also mentioned in Sunday’s communique, brings to 575 the number of African civilians

reported killed this year — 69 since the beginning of the month. The total war toll since January 1 — Government forces, guerrillas, collaborators and recruits, and black and white civilians — r now stands at 1907. A total of 542 people have died since the Government issued its cease-fire call on Mav 2.

Censored (Substantial alterations and deletions were made to this story when it was submitted for routine censorship in Salisbury).