Mass graves found in Zimbabwe

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 11

Mass graves found in Zimbabwe

NZPA-Reuter Harare Mass graves containing the bodies of what were said to be thousands of guerrillas killed in the war against Zimbabwe’s former white rulers had been found at Rusape, 145 km south-east of Harare, the “Herald” newspaper reported yesterday. Several Zimbabwean Cabinet Ministers had visited the area on Wednesday, and the Information Minister, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, was quoted as saying that a monument would be erected in honour of the fallen guerrillas. The “Herald” said that more than 4000 guerrillas and sympathisers who had

fought against the white regime for six years before independence in 1980 had been buried in the shallow graves. It gave no source , for the figure. It quoted a Government spokesman as saying that guerrillas caught by Government security forces in war zones had been dumped in the graves, which had been dug by prisoners. The Zimbabwean Government has in the past said that it had found graves of former fighters, but nothing of the magnitude reported yesterday. At least 20,000 Sle were killed in the war. The “Herald” said that the visiting Ministers had been told by local people in

Rusape that one grave held the remains of 180 women fighters and another, those of at least 160 men.

Most were supporters of Robert Mugabe, now Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, and of Joshua Nkomo, leader of the minority Zimbabwe African People’s Union, whose guerrillas waged a bitter war against the white regime of the Rhodesian Prime Minister, lan Smith.

The “Herald” quoted a Government spokesman as saying that dead guerrillas had been packed in plastic bags for burial and those still alive had been quickly shot at a rifle-range near Rusape by men of the

Rhodesian Selous Scouts, a combat-tracker, counter-in-surgency unit “The brutalities and atrocities committed by the regime of lan Smith are now being exposed by patriotic Zimbabweans,” Dr Shamuyarira said. A former white Rhodesian soldier, who asked not to be identified by name, said that a camp near Rusape had been headquarters for Rhodesian Army Intelligence officers who interrogated captured guerrillas and took fingerprints of those killed in action.

Under a general amnesty at independence, all guerrillas and Rhodesian soldiers were absolved of guilt for any war crimes.