Mugabe guerrillas kill policemen in clash at camp

Press, 26 August 1980, Page 8

Mugabe guerrillas kill policemen in clash at camp

NZPA Salisbury Two policemen have been killed in an outbreak of violence in the northeastern Zimbabwe town of Mtoko that involved former guerrillas of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the guerrilla force of the Prime Minister (Mr Robert Mugabe). ' ‘ A black constable was beaten and kicked to death bv “Z.A.N.L.A. elements” and a white policeman was shot in the head and killed In an ambush near a ceasefire assembly point occupied by Z.A.N.L.A. forces, a police spokesman said. A black policeman was in uniform and on duty when he attempted to halt a dispute between Z.A;N.L.A. members and Zimbabwe prison staff in Mtoko’s Chinzanga township, he said. “The constable was kicked and beaten about the head

and body by Z.A.N.L.A., elements,” the spokesman said, ’ , “and died in Mtoko Hospital later the same day. A num- , ber of persons have been ar- j i rested in connection with , • the murder.” • ■ The spokesman also saia j i that terrorists staged a 30- ; minute attack on the Mtoko • police station and, soon j afterwards, the white polices man was killed in the_ am- •; i bush near the Z.A.N.L.A. ’ assembly point, code-named , X-Ray. The spokesman added that a second policeman was wounded in the ambush. . ' i The police said that the two policemen were part of a patrol that had been sent out after the attack , on the police station. Official sources have reported growing unrest in the , assembly areas, where more 1 than 30,000 former guerrillas have been concentrated in I the eight months since the 1

cease-fire ended the guerrilla war late last year. Tension was-heightened by the arrest of the Manpower Minister, Edgar Tekere, on charges of murdering a white farmer early this month. In New York Mr Mugabe has said that there was ,no longer f any room in the country for the white former armed-forces commander, Lieutenant-General Peter Walls. Mr Mugabe apparently was angered by a recent admission by General Walls that he sought to prevent the former guerrilla leader becoming Prime Minister after his election victory last spring. He said there was still a place for whites in Zimbabwe, provided they accepted the principle of an African-dominated Government.