Four Zimbabwean airmen still held

Press, 12 September 1983, Page 10

Four Zimbabwean airmen still held

NZPA-Reuter Dublin The Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Mr Robert Mugabe, has said that the cases of four white airmen detained in Zimbabwe were, being processed and they would be released “if we feel they should be.” Two other top-ranking former Zimbabwe Air Force officers left Harare for Britain on Saturday after being declared undesirables.

At the end of a two-day official visit to Ireland, Mr Mugabe defended his Government’s decision to rearrest the airmen, after they were acquitted of sabotage charges 12 days ago. “We make our judgment, on the basis of intelligence information and not necessarily on evidence which is adduced in court,” he said. At the Harare Airport on Saturday, Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Slatter, the former Air Force deputy commander, and Air Commodore Philip Pile, the former Director of Operations, said farewell to their families. “The other cases will be reviewed and if we decide they should be released, they will be released,” said Mr Mugabe.

The six had been detained originally on the basis of information of a security and intelligence character, he said. They were acquitted after

the High Court’ ruled that confessions they made were extracted under torture, but were immediately rearrested, provoking an outcry from abroad.

“Our law is very clear,” 'said Mr Mugabe. “It allows the Government to detain anyone felt to be a threat to our security on the basis of intelligence information.” To a barrage of questions from journalists, he asked: “Why is there so much concern for these men? There are other people in detention in Zimbabwe. Is it because they are white?” He described judicial procedures inherited from the British colonial adminstration as “a stupid ass.” A man could commit murder but get off if police coercion was used, he said.

Under the Zimbabwean law, evidence in court must be examined even if violence may have been involved, he said, adding that defendants had a right to sue the police for assault. Mr Mugabe said the airmen had been involved with the regime of former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Mr lan Smith. “They have a background of illegal behaviour,” he said.

Slatter and Pile were cleared with four other officers of helping raiders to attack Thornhill Air Force base in the central town of Gweru, last year.

The Government said that damages to aircraft were about $l5 million.

The Interior Ministry did not say if or when the other detainees, Wing Commanders Peter Briscoe and John Cox and Air Lieutenants Barrington Lloyd and Neville Weir, would be freed.

It said that Slatter and Pile were being deported under emergency laws introduced in September, 1980, and first enforced against the former Zimbabwe Army commander, LieutenantGeneral Peter Walls, who was accused of verbally offending the Government. Under the regulations, the State can order a Zimbabwean citizen to leave the country and never return.