Mugabe cracks down on rebels

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 7

Mugabe cracks down on rebels

i NZPA-Reuter Goromonzi, i .-I Zimbabwe' [ ■ i .1 Joint detachments of pol-i , i ice and Zimbabwe’s new; National Army are patrolling! I the restive farming area of; t! Goromonzi east of Salisbury,; II after the announcement of; i the Prime Minister (Mr’ : i Robert Mugabe) of a crack- i, > down on rebel guerrilla fight-' i ers. But the area, where two] 1 people were killed last week.!; ’ remained tense, with the pol-m 1 ice warning travellers to ■ 'i steer well clear of farms;; i where some of Mr Mugabe’s!, i armed followers are quar-i jtered. I; i Mr Mugabe announced last:t j.week that, for the first timeh ; since independence last April,11 ! the new National Army was? j being deployed with the pol-i' ice to counter lawlessness in if three areas: Salisbury, the: - south-western city of ’ Bula-!« wayo, and the northern trad- i

ing centre of Sinoia. | The National Army, which'! is still being formed, is com-j posed of former guerrillas! from the nationalist forces! led by Mr Mugabe and the! Home Affairs Minister (Mr Joshua Nkomo) which fought the Rhodesian Army during the seven-year bush war. In a radio and television address. Mr Mugabe said that “dissident elements and mis-’ guided party militants” had; been responsible for a spasm; of violence in Goromonzi.; 40km east of Salisbury, and! other districts. ' | “The evil elements must be routed, and routed with speed,” he said. Later he repeated the message to a meeting of tribal chiefs on the outskirts of Salisbury, telling them: “We cannot allow a situation to continue to develop where political malcontents are acting to bring about chaos, J with the hope of using that f chaos to achieve a political 1 advantage.” Mr Mugabe has alluded to

i unidentified politicians fo- ! menting violence, and his I statements have sparked .speculation. > The police, meanwhile, ihave reported that five mem- ; bers of the former Rhodesian ' Army were thrown off a mov. ; ing train near Umtali in eastern Zimbabwe last week bv members of the National Army. Four of the former Rhodesian forces men were black and the fifth a Coloured (mixed race). Four of them were taken to hospital with fractures. No further details were available. In Salisbury, a British Broadcasting Corporation television team arrested while producing a documentary on the Zimbabwe manpower Minister (Mr Edgar Tekere) is to he deported, police sources have said.