Two die as bloody run-up to Rhodesia poll ends

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 9

Two die as bloody run-up to Rhodesia poll ends

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury An explosion wrecked the offices of a small liberal newspaper and ! killed two people in the city of Gwelo at the week-end as Rhodesian i political leaders wound up an election campaign marked by violence.

The blast demolished the single-storey building of the Roman Catholic Mambo Press which publishes the weekly newspaper “Moto.” The police said the victims were severely mutilated and had not yet been identified.

The explosion, the .latest in a series of violent incidents marring the campaign, took place only three days before rhe country’s 2.8 million blacks vote in ■ preindependence elections ending nine decades of white supremacy.

The nationalist 4 . guerrilla leader, Joshua Nkomo, staged his final big campaign rally in Gwelo at the week-end but there was no indication that the explosion was connected with his presence.

Mr Nkomo told reporters be believed the Selous Scouts, a highly-trained, secretive mixed-race unit of the . Rhodesian security forces, were responsible for the bombing.

Nationalist leaders have frequently accused the scouts of acts aimed at in-

ciminating nationalist followers.’ ’

When two huge explosions damaged ■ churches ' in Salisbury on February 14 two blacks were blown to pieces the same day in a car in a Salisbury African township. The police initially said they believed the dead men were responsible for the other bomb blasts, but later, when it was disclosed the victims were Selous Scouts, said they were no longer considering that theory. . “Moto,” which was banned by the former white minority administration in the mid-1970s and restarted publication only recently, supported the Marxist leaning Robert Mugabe. A bogus edition, circulated on Saturday-, denigrated Mi* Mugabe, who'is one of the three main challengers in the General Election.

- Mr’ Mugabe -.cancelled an appearance at his last big rally in the eastern border town of Umtali on Saturday, fearing a further attempt to kill him after an assassination bid two weeks ago.

The. police found a rocket and explosives hidden inside

the football stadium where he was to speak. His aides ■said they, believed "suicide squads” of assassins ’ had been formed to kill Mr Mugabe, who is abhorred by many whites and black political rivals.

The other main election contender, the former Prime Minister. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, wound up his campaign with a characteristically flamboyant rally in Salisbury’s black township of Highfieids. The bishop, arriving in a flight of helicopters, issued a by now familiar attack oh Marxism but called for national reconciliation. “This is the time to forgive and forget, this is the time to put the past behind us,” he told the 100,000strong crowd, clutching a bible in one hand and a white ivory wand marked with a black cross in the other. His attack on Marxism was seen as directed figainst Mr. Mugabe but, in contrast to earlier campaign speeches, he refrained from direct personal onslaughts ion his opponents.

Hundreds of unarmed British police constables were deployed into the Rhodesian bush at the week-end to begin observing the election.

Some 570 policemen arrived from London as part of Britain’s efforts to ensure, that the vote from tomorrow to Friday is free and fair. They are to be posted, in uniform, at some of the 1000-plus remote polling points to try . to instil confidence that "the-ballot is secret, British officials have said.

Helicopters, Royal Air Force Hercules transport planes, and buses ferried the constables around Rhodesia while the Rhodesian press took relish in needling them. Rhodesians have been I amused by orders to the constables from 50 British regional forces, to keep umbrellas with them because of the current rainy season.

Newspapers have published a series of cartoons about the umbrella orders and a group of white soldiers have prepared a massive "brolly” rack for the British constables as a joke.