Rhodesian guerrilla leaders try to delay cease-fire deadline

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 5

Rhodesian guerrilla leaders try to delay cease-fire deadline

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury Rhodesia’s guerrilla leaders have asked for more time to round up their forces and send them to the cease-fire assembly points. But Government House in Salisbury said it was unlikely the request could be granted. About 4100 of the estimated 16,000 guerrillas inside Rhodesia have so far checked in since the cease-fire came into effect last Friday, according to the Commonwealth monitoring force. With little over two days left before the deadline, pessimism was yesterday growing about the final figure. Spokesmen for Mr Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union and Mr Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union, which together make up the Patriotic Front, said they would .be asking the British

Governor (Lord Soames) to agree to an extension of the deadline. But Lord Soames’s spokesman, Mr Nicholas Fenn, said: “The deadline is written into the Lancaster House agreement, and it is not in the Governor’s power to extend the deadline.” Estimates of the number of guerrillas in Rhodesia have ranged from 9000 to more than 30,000. British officials generally settle for about 16,000. The request for an extension is the first definite sign that the response to the cease-fire has not gone as well as expected.' The Z.A.P.U. publicity secretary 7 , Mr Willie Musrarurwa, told NZPA-Reuter: “We will be seeing the governor later today and asking for an extension. The time is too short.” Z.A.P.U. would also seek a postponement of the General

Election which has been set for the end of next month. The Patriotic Front had been forced into accepting the cease-fire arrangements over protests that a far longer period would be required to persuade the guerrillas to hand themselves over. Reuter reports from the assembly point of Mgadze: Big Fish is here. So too is The Man Who Plays With Guns. Automatic Black Devil is some way off to the south. : The Patriotic Front guer- | rillas trickling into remote ■assembly points under Rho[desia’s cease-fire . have 'brought with them not only ■their guns, but also their noms de guerre. Big Fish is a senior commander of Z.A.N.L.A. Automatic Black Devil is aged only about 14 years, but he .issues orders to his elders. Mutamba Ne.Futu — The

Man Who Plays With Guns — is at this assembly point in an isolated, abandoned white farmstead 100 km north of Salisbury. “We call this futu,” he said, patting the distinctive curved clip on his AK47 rifle. Also at the farmstead is the bombardier. “I shoot the mortars,” he said, demonstrating rapid deployment of his 60mm mortar and pointing it towards the nearby Australian monitoring gar- i risen. The guerrillas are part of ia group of 38 who have reported to assembly . point: i “Bravo” at Mgadze farm, where 18 Australian troops represent the 1300-man (monitoring force. A further 60 guerrillas were expected, adding to the 14100 Patriotic Front men | who have checked in at the Icease-fire points.