‘Zimbabwe will punish killers’

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 10

‘Zimbabwe will punish killers’

NZPA-Reuter Esigodini, Zimbabwe The Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister, Enos Nkala, on Saturday toured the two farms where 16 whites were butchered by rebels and vowed that the murderers would be punished.

H We will account for them,” said Mr Nkala, who visited Olive Tree Farm and Adams Farm at Esigodini, about 100 km south of Bulawayo in Matabeleland. The farms form a Christian community.

The 16 victims, who included two babies and several other children, were hacked to death by rebels led. by a man known as Gaylgusu. He was apparently called in by squatters who had quarrelled with the whites over grazing rights.

The massacre, before dawn on Thursday, was the worst since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. The country has experienced sporadic rebel attacks in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces since 1982.

Two victims were American and one 'British. The rest were Zimbabweans. Mr Nkala travelled to the two farms in a police jeep in a convoy of armed police and inspected the house at Olive Tree Farm where eight victims were hacked to death with machetes. “We want Gayigusu’s head and I’m sure we will get it,” he said. Gaylgusu, whose real, name is Morgan Sango, was a guerrilla fighter in the Z.I.P.R.A. army of

Joshua Nkomo, the veteran leader of the opposition Z.A.P.U. party, before independence. He has terrorised the area since 1982. A massive manhunt involving special plainclothes Army and police units was under way on Saturday to track down the rebels. John Russel, aged 74, one of the founders of the Christian community, was flying home . from the United States when the killers struck. His daughter, Katherine Marais, was among the

victims. “I still don’t believe it happened,” Mr Russel said in a shaking voice. “When we moved In five and half years ago, there were problems. We didn’t want to live under arms, we wanted to be part of the community.” Mr Russel’s six-year-old grandson, Matthew, escaped the massacre by crawling through a window and spending the night in a cattle dip where he fell asleep and was found by farm workers on Thursday morning.