Battling Zimbabwe guerrillas ignore Mugabe warning

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 7

Battling Zimbabwe guerrillas ignore Mugabe warning

NZPA-Reuter Bulawayo Former guen~as, brushing aside warnings of tough action by Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister (Mr Robert Mugabe), battled again yesterday on the outskirts of Bulawayo. Opposing forces from guerrilla armies loyal to Mr Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo fought with assault rifles and rocket grenades in the latest clash which lasted several hours. Fighting between the two. who have been integrated into a fledgling national Army, first erupted on Saturday. ' Nineteen people have died in . the 'ashes and Mr Mugabe pledged in Parliament earlier yesterday that his Government would disarm the former guerrillas involved. Only hours after his statement, pink tracer bullets lit up the night sky over Entumbane township and hundreds of civilians clutching poW and pans fled the renewed fighting and took refuge in police stations on the outskirts. Ironically, the only nonpartisan fighting force left to Mr Mugabe is the old Rhodesian African Rifles — a 3000-strong force of black

troops who fought both guerrilla armies during the guerrillas’ seven-year bush war against white rule. Hundreds of Rhodesian African Rifles moved into one of the main areas of the latest fighting in armoured cars to drive a wedge between the quarrelsome groups. As with the faction violence elsewhere, not all the former guerrillas have been involved, military sources said. Many fled into the bush when the shooting started. Joshua Nkomo, the junior coalition partner, fought alongside Mr Mugabe for seven years in the guerrilla war against the country’s former white rulers. The new 11,000-strong national Army is being formed to overcome traditional tribal and. political rivalries between the two guerrilla forces, but the latest clashes have highlighted those differences. The fighting first flared last Saturday at a beer hall near Bulawayo and then spread to two barracks. Entumbane towr hip was the scene last November of the worst violence that Zimbabwe had seen since gaining independence seven months before. The two

forces battled for a day and a half. Fifty-eight people died, many of them in reprisal killings in the township, whose name means “place of slaughter” in the local language. i vhile, Zimbabwe yesterday published details of a three-year development plan envisaging investment of 3.9 billion Zimbabwe dollars (about SNZ6.IS billion). The plan, which has a foreign capital requirement of SNZ3.6 billion, is mostly for land settlement, rural development, reconstruction, arid refugee programmes. And Zimbabwe’s biggest newspaper group has announced that the white editors of its three main publications are to be replaced by blacks, members of the staff have said. Some of the white editors, and senior editorial staff, are said to have resigned. The changes follow the Government’s purchase of the South African Argus group’s 42 per cent shareholding in Zimbabwe Newspapers. One of the new editors is a senior member of Mr Nkomo’s party who edited a paper that was banned by the white regime in the 19605.