- 4 months ago
Charlie Cobb explores how a rift between two of Zimbabwe's leaders threatens to divide the country among tribal lines.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Frontline is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
00:03Additional funding is provided by this station and other public television stations nationwide,
00:08and by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies,
00:11for over 100 years providing worldwide business and personal insurance
00:15through independent agents and brokers.
00:24It's been called Black Africa's land of hope and glory.
00:28Once, its leaders fought together Rhodesia's white racism and won.
00:36Today, these leaders fight each other.
00:44Tonight, on Frontline, an exclusive report on the terror, the tragedy, the crisis in Zimbabwe.
00:58From the network of public television stations, a presentation of KCTS Seattle,
01:06WNET New York, WPBT Miami, WTVS Detroit, and WGBH Boston.
01:12This is Frontline, with Jessica Savage.
01:18This is Zimbabwe.
01:24Up until three years ago, we knew it as Rhodesia.
01:28Right now, we're sending this nation an average of $75 million per year in non-military aid.
01:33That is one of the largest amounts of aid we send any African nation.
01:36That may well be because for us, and for the people of this country,
01:41Zimbabwe was a symbol of white racism.
01:44But the Civil War, which changed its name, changed its symbolism as well.
01:48So Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
01:50White minority rule gave way to a black-ruled, moderate nation,
01:54politically and economically stable.
01:56That is, until recently.
01:57The end of the Civil War three years ago marked the beginning of a rift
02:02between the two black leaders, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo,
02:06a personal rift that could split the nation as well.
02:10Robert Mugabe, famous for his guerrilla leadership and scholarship in law and politics,
02:15became the prime minister, winning over Joshua Nkomo,
02:18called the father of Zimbabwean independence.
02:21Mugabe belongs to the majority tribe.
02:23His party is known by its acronym, ZANU.
02:27Nkomo's tribe is a minority.
02:29His party is called Zappo.
02:31These terms will come up repeatedly in the reports you're about to see tonight.
02:34Zimbabwe, the hope of black Africa.
02:37It is again on the edge of war.
02:39Six weeks ago, Nkomo fled the country for London,
02:42saying his life was in danger.
02:44But factions of Nkomo's party remain here,
02:47in Matabililand, fighting the Fifth Brigade, loyal to Mugabe.
02:50And thousands have fled this way,
02:53to refugee camps in neighboring Botswana.
02:56The struggle in Zimbabwe really is twofold.
02:58It is personal.
02:59It is political.
03:01There's the internal power struggle between Mugabe and Nkomo.
03:04And there is the external political consideration as well.
03:08A destabilized Zimbabwe could have far-reaching consequences for all of southern Africa.
03:13And so it is a human drama.
03:15It is a national crisis.
03:16We call it The Crisis in Zimbabwe.
03:19It is produced and directed for Frontline by Chris Jeans,
03:23reported by Charlie Cobb.
03:25I'll be back with reporter Cobb and Anthony Lewis of the New York Times,
03:29following a crisis in Zimbabwe.
03:32Here at Hero's Acre in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital,
03:42the women of the revolution sing and dance at a rally,
03:45honoring the thousands who died in Zimbabwe's struggle for freedom.
03:48A war some consider southern Africa's most successful war of liberation.
03:54The rally is led by the prime minister's wife, Sally Mugabe.
03:58There are very many people who are lying here who are very great.
04:04They sacrificed a lot to bring Zimbabwe to all of us.
04:08Today we can walk freely in the streets of Zimbabwe without any harassment.
04:12Everybody can associate with anyone, white, black, green, blue.
04:15We all mix together.
04:17And we owe a lot to these people.
04:19So it means, it's a symbol to us in the country,
04:25to show that there were people who were really prepared even to die
04:29to bring back Zimbabwe to us.
04:33But death has laid its hands on the land again in southern Zimbabwe,
04:38in Marabililand.
04:39Soldiers have killed or driven from the land thousands of villagers.
04:44This time, however, the soldiers are not white,
04:46but Prime Minister Mugabe's own elite troops.
04:50Five brigades, the Gukuru Hundi, the Whirlwind.
04:55The bones of decomposed bodies bleach beneath the African sun.
05:00The earth holds new shallow graves.
05:03Some bodies have been burned.
05:08To lift a pile of branches is to sometimes discover
05:12a crude attempt to hide the evidence of army atrocities.
05:16The prime minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe,
05:26refuses to accept that his soldiers are slaughtering people in Marabililand.
05:31If you give me the facts, I'm prepared to investigate them.
05:36Let's not just shout noises for the press, for your employers,
05:46so that your paper is published or your sponsors can carry out propaganda.
05:56Informed about what?
05:58Not excesses in Marabililand.
06:00Inform me.
06:01You are alleging excesses, and if you allege them,
06:05do bring evidence, concrete evidence.
06:07And I've said again and again,
06:10if we are given concrete evidence,
06:12you see, we will investigate
06:13that, the allegations,
06:17and do it as objectively as possible.
06:20We are humanitarians.
06:21We don't want to see people killed,
06:24wantonly killed for no purpose.
06:27And so, it's our concern,
06:29more our concern than the concerns of your sponsors.
06:34Have you been informed on your office, Mr. Prime Minister?
06:37Right, can we get, sir?
06:38There is abundant, well-documented evidence,
06:43and Mr. Mugabe is well aware of it.
06:46His specially trained 5th Brigade
06:48is meant to be searching out armed, hostile dissidents.
06:51In fact, they are murdering wantonly.
06:54The written and oral reports of massacres
06:56come from all over Marabililand.
06:59Marabililand is in southern Zimbabwe.
07:03Reports have highlighted that people have been beaten,
07:05tortured, and murdered
07:06in Chilocho, in Lupani, and near Gwai.
07:10Many who talk are terrified
07:12and afraid to speak openly.
07:15The soldiers move into the crawl,
07:17that they ask where the dissidents are,
07:19and then they start to beat
07:20and to shoot the people.
07:22I saw people beaten up,
07:25I saw people shot,
07:27and I saw people being burned.
07:31Men, women, children, all ages.
07:36The soldiers were gathering the people in schools.
07:40Other times, they were lining the people up,
07:44and then they picked certain people and shot them.
07:47The tactics of 5th Brigade in Marabililand seem deliberate,
07:51premeditated.
07:52Well, the normal thing is that they have a list of people
07:58that they're looking for.
08:00That's one thing.
08:02And then, if these actual names of people,
08:07if these people don't happen to be there,
08:09then they start talking about dissidents.
08:11Have you seen any distance?
08:12And then, of course, if the answer is no,
08:16then the beating starts.
08:19And so it goes on.
08:22And then, eventually, in some cases,
08:23people are just shot.
08:25Both this man's brothers were killed.
08:27The soldiers killed his two brothers separately.
08:45My one brother they killed when he was closing up his cattle.
08:49And as for his other brother,
08:50they woke him up and took him into the bush and shot him.
09:04It was just about 11 o'clock.
09:06The school was going on.
09:09Now, they came up.
09:10They asked if ever the children had ever seen the dissidents.
09:14The children did not answer them.
09:17Then the headmaster is to ask the children
09:18if ever they could give the answer to them
09:20because the children were so frightened.
09:22Now, instead of the Freefield Brigade
09:26asking some more questions to children,
09:28they shot two school children dead.
09:30The new regime's defense is eerily reminiscent
09:33of the old white regime.
09:35The army has been operating to flush out the dissidents
09:38who have been operating in this area.
09:40But the dissidents have also, realizing their weakness,
09:44taken cover within the civilian population.
09:47And it is when there is that type of conflict
09:50that some civilians might die.
09:52But it is simply a question that they are harboring the dissidents.
09:57And when dissidents attack the army from within the civilians,
10:02obviously the army cannot run away
10:04until the dissidents have separated themselves from the civilians.
10:08They fight back.
10:09It's how they fight back that disturbs churchman Michael Orett.
10:13But for 16 years, he assisted the movement for freedom in Zimbabwe.
10:17He had just finished a meeting with Mr. Mugabe
10:19when we spoke to him.
10:22We saw him today for an hour and a half
10:27and presented to him the evidence that is the cases
10:36which we have been able to substantiate
10:38of civilian deaths and military abuse of power in Matabira land.
10:47Unfortunately, some elements of the military units
10:54who have been used in Matabira land have overstepped the mark.
10:59There have been abuses of power.
11:02There have been unnecessary killings of civilians in the area.
11:09How many killings are we talking about?
11:14I think that that's impossible to say.
11:16What did your investigation provide?
11:19The figures which we presented to the Prime Minister
11:23are first of all outdated.
11:25We're going back to the beginning of February
11:27and we're talking about three or four hundred.
11:33However, we cannot say that this is
11:36as many as have been killed, not by immigrants.
11:42Michael Orett's report was prepared before February.
11:46He acknowledges it's an early assessment
11:48and therefore does not encompass the full scale
11:51of the atrocities in Matabili land.
11:53No one in Zimbabwe knows how many persons were killed.
11:57The estimates range from a low of 500 to a high of 8,000.
12:03In opening this conference,
12:06I expressed the hope that we would be able
12:08to lay the foundations for a free, independent
12:13and democratic society in which all the people of Rhodesia,
12:18irrespective of their race or political beliefs,
12:21would be able to live in security and peace
12:24with each other and with their neighbors.
12:30The Lancaster House conference set in London three years ago
12:34brought an end to the colonial era in Zimbabwe.
12:37At this conference, the leaders of the warring parties
12:40met to work out the details of a new independent Zimbabwe.
12:44For the white Rhodesians,
12:45it meant the end of the white minority rule
12:48that began in southern Zimbabwe.
12:55The Matopo's hills, here in Matabili land,
12:57where the killings have been occurring,
12:59was a favored spot for the early white Rhodesians.
13:03They call this hill view of the world.
13:06Ironically, this same hill is sacred to Africans.
13:10They call it the dwelling place of spirits.
13:12For nearly a century, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia
13:18after Cecil Rhodes, who conquered the country
13:20back in the late 19th century.
13:25By 1964, when Great Britain seemed to be moving
13:29toward reform and eventual independence for Rhodesia,
13:32the white minority declared the colony independent,
13:35imposing a harsh minority rule on blacks.
13:37250,000 whites, mostly of British descent,
13:42dominated over 7 million blacks,
13:44socially, economically, and politically.
13:52A bitter war of liberation waged by two guerrilla armies
13:56took shape.
13:56Give us five minutes for that.
13:58And let's turn on the tape to get the three captures
14:01as an escort into the LZ.
14:0320,000 died before a ceasefire was agreed to
14:07as part of a negotiated settlement
14:09which gained Zimbabwe its freedom.
14:12Well, they were hoping to bring reconciliation
14:13between black and white,
14:16an end to the civil war,
14:19the makings of a reconciliation,
14:24not just between the black and white,
14:27but between the two large tribes,
14:30and, of course, the integration
14:32of the three armies that there were.
14:35And all these were very difficult
14:38and very extremely difficult things to bring about.
14:42I think Mr. McGrawby's been successful in some of them
14:44and not so successful in others.
14:47Nationhood is not new to Zimbabwe.
14:49Here was the center of their greatest civilization.
14:53Colonialism gave the final death blows
14:55to this Zimbabwe,
14:56but the colonial period was relatively short,
14:59lasting some 90 years.
15:01At Lancaster House in Great Britain,
15:03after the Liberation War,
15:05a new Zimbabwe was negotiated.
15:07A ceasefire was agreed upon.
15:10The issues of land reform
15:11and a constitution were resolved.
15:14But the greatest promise
15:15was reconciliation.
15:18The Lancaster House Conference
15:20established a date for elections,
15:22which were held under British supervision
15:23in March 1980.
15:25Mr. Mugabe won an overall majority
15:28for his party,
15:29the Zimbabwe African National Union,
15:31better known as ZANU.
15:33Mugabe's party won 57
15:35out of a possible 100 seats in parliament.
15:38His former colleague in the War of Liberation,
15:41Joshua Nkomo,
15:42ran separately as the leader
15:44of the rival Zimbabwe African People's Union,
15:46or ZAPU.
15:48But ZAPU won a mere 20 seats.
15:50Mr. Mugabe's ZANU draws most of its support
15:54from the majority Shona tribe
15:56concentrated in the northern and eastern areas.
15:59Support for Mr. Nkomo
16:01largely comes from Marabili land,
16:03whose populace, the Ndebele,
16:05thrust into Zimbabwe in the 19th century
16:07under the leadership of Imzilikazi,
16:10a breakaway Zulu chief.
16:11With powerful military capacity,
16:13they overwhelmed many indigenous tribes,
16:16including some Shona clans.
16:18Under Imzilikazi and his son, Lobengula,
16:21the Ndebele ruled southern Zimbabwe
16:23until the arrival of white colonialists
16:25under Cecil Rhodes.
16:27But whites are no longer
16:28the main problem in Zimbabwe.
16:31The country is being seared by conflict
16:33between the Shona-dominated ZANU
16:35and the Ndebele-dominated ZAPU,
16:38and their former military wings,
16:40Zanla and Zipra.
16:42They fought together uneasily
16:43as the patriotic front.
16:45Watch out.
16:46What is right in you?
16:48Show enthusiasm.
16:49Be enthusiastic, eh?
16:51Today, the British have over 100 officers
16:54and NCOs in Zimbabwe
16:55training the new national army.
16:58Both Zanla and Zipra troops
17:00have now been integrated
17:01into the new national army
17:02being trained by the British.
17:04But political differences,
17:06some going back 20 years,
17:08have been eroding the merger.
17:10Recently, the head of the army,
17:12Rex Nongo, on the right here,
17:13has been talking privately
17:15of the need to demobilize
17:17all of Mr. Nkomo's former Zipra fighters.
17:20That could be dangerous.
17:22Zimbabwe needs national unity.
17:24An army divided by political party
17:26and at war with itself
17:27could precipitate disaster.
17:29The British, however,
17:31keep a stiff upper lip.
17:33We have some good people coming in.
17:37The motivation of the students,
17:38you have to see them to believe it.
17:41They really want to learn.
17:43And, of course,
17:43it makes it much easier for me
17:44to teach people that want to learn.
17:47But, of course,
17:47I'm sure that Major Mutisi,
17:48my right-hand man,
17:50might be able to give you
17:51the other view from the national army.
17:54Well, is Major Mutisi concerned
17:57about tension between
17:58the two former wings
17:59of the Patriotic Front?
18:01I would like to comment on that,
18:04but at BTC...
18:04I think, Edward,
18:05if I might interrupt you,
18:06I think that perhaps that you,
18:07you're not the person
18:09to comment on that.
18:10Perhaps it's for me to comment
18:12because there are three factions here.
18:15There's the former army
18:18and then the two factions
18:19of the Patriotic Front.
18:21Edward, of course,
18:22as a former army,
18:24and Edward might not see things
18:26as clearly as what I do.
18:28And I must answer that here
18:29in this particular unit,
18:31there is no evidence
18:33of this at all.
18:35And from what we've seen
18:37of all our students, Edward,
18:38that come from everywhere,
18:40I think that what the problems
18:43of two years ago
18:44have now diminished
18:45into almost nothing.
18:47Shoulder!
18:49Heart!
18:49Heart!
18:50Heart!
18:50Heart!
18:50Heart!
18:50Heart!
18:51Heart!
18:51Heart!
18:52Heart!
18:52At this point,
18:53about a third
18:53of Mr. Nkomo's
18:54Zeepra fighters
18:55have deserted the army,
18:56many taking their guns
18:57with them.
18:59On at least two occasions,
19:00Zanla and Zeepra forces
19:01have engaged
19:02in full-scale battles.
19:04Zeepra deserters
19:05return home
19:06to Matabililand,
19:07where they become
19:08what the government
19:08calls dissidents.
19:09last year the government moved the army in to hunt the dissidents and the growing number of
19:17non-political bandits operating in the region despite the use of experienced trackers helicopters
19:23and mounted infantry the operation wasn't successful after years of guerrilla warfare
19:29the dissidents know how to avoid a conventional army in july last year they attacked this truck
19:36and kidnapped two americans two british and two australians all tourists they've not been heard
19:44from since the army convinced the dissidents are supported by local civilians became more ruthless
19:50anyone suspected of contact with the dissidents was beaten or worse
19:56the attacks nevertheless continued on new year's eve benji williams a 70 year old
20:06white farmer was kidnapped and then decapitated his grandson david belang disappeared the boy's
20:14parents have heard nothing from the kidnappers and very little from the security forces one's got to
20:20accept that the army had a difficult task in that they had to cover a vast area in addition to which
20:31they received very little or no cooperation from any of the rural africans insofar as reporting
20:41the movement of any dissidents in that particular area if they do give away the presence of dissidents
20:49operating within the area they are regarded as sellouts and thereafter their life is in danger
20:59and on the other hand if they do not cooperate with the security forces they can also be in for a hard time
21:09for her part mrs belang still believes that our son is alive
21:15i do yes i think he is still alive i pray to god he is anyway
21:27and i pray that he is being well looked after and i just pray too that somebody responds and
21:39and gives us some information as to where is whereabouts
21:48because it's not nice to have your child kidnapped
21:56violence continues to date more than 30 white farmers have been killed by dissidents
22:01from mike wood and other marabili land farmers things seem as badass or worse than during the war
22:09by january this year it was clear that dissidents were deliberately hitting high visibility high
22:15publicity targets we lost six members of our community in this district and one in an adjoining
22:21district mr williams and mr david walters and his two children and uh three assistants on his ranch and this
22:30really lowered the morale and you know the despondency was terrible at this point the government allowed
22:37farmers to carry weapons they eagerly seized the offer well um to give you a case in point in this
22:46district there was a very great fuel shortage at the time i drew 30 weapons i warned people i gave
22:53people 24 hours notice of when i would have them and be able to issue them and i issued them all within
22:58two hours when mugabe decided to send units of the national army into marabili land he sent units that
23:06had seen action during the war of liberation and whose experience as guerrilla fighters had now been
23:11supplemented with training by british military advisors
23:19but training drills don't guarantee the existence of national unity and purpose
23:24zebra fighters defected from the first army units sent to marabili land so the government turned to the
23:31fifth brigade trained by north koreans and mostly consisting of ex-sonla fighters they are mugabe's
23:38praetorian guard well what happened if i remember rightly was that they had an offer from the north koreans
23:47uh to train for free uh a brigade and provide all the equipment for free and when you're offered a
23:57a a a brand new well-equipped brigade trained by the north koreans i think it's quite difficult to pass it
24:04up if you're short of money at the outbreak of the problems that we have in materialent
24:10we initially reacted to the problem as a simple problem of law and order and we sent the police
24:18units there but because of the pattern of organization involving both the ex zebra dissidents
24:28the political infrastructure we got to a position where it was realized the police alone were being
24:36ineffective we therefore decided to reinforce the police with units of the zimbabwe national army
24:43integrated battalions and this was particularly at the time when the tourists were kidnapped
24:52but in the course of operations to our disappointment some of the zebra elements within the national army
25:02actually deserted during operations and we had the ridiculous position that rather than fighting
25:10against the dissidents we were actually facilitating the process of reinforcing them and we found that
25:18it was ineffective to use such units and we therefore in the end decided to send units of the fifth brigade
25:27for one they are loyal to the government and secondly they wouldn't desert and they would see to it that
25:33they carried out the task which they've been assigned successfully if they can how political is five
25:39brigade this question always worried joshwin como well i think i did say my my my point when it was being
25:49formed i said it to the prime minister that it was a pity a brigade
25:56outside the national army was being formed and that i feared it would be used as a political army
26:06apart from the the national army it appears it has been used so well how do white farmers like mike
26:14would get along with five brigade i think basically very well indeed um we know that they're here to
26:21protect us and they know that they're here to protect us and we work together and and we had no problems
26:28really with them and for african villagers i'd rather not answer that question quite definitely the the whole
26:38idea is to either eradicate the opposition party zapo and perhaps even initially uh uh eventually to uh
26:51eradicate completely the the matter baby if ever you knew shauna you are safe that way if ever you can
26:59speak shauna you are safe you are always safe okay now what what i experienced is this now this is
27:06matribeleland those people when they were speaking to matribele they spoke in shauna then if you don't
27:12understand in shauna or if you don't answer in shauna that's when you are a target
27:20continued disorder in marabili land risked the economic well-being of zimbabwe
27:25below whale the capital of marabili land is at the hub of the country's railway system
27:30zimbabwe is landlocked its railways critical for trade zimbabwe's railroads to the east have been
27:42disrupted by south african-backed guerrillas seeking to topple the mozambique government
27:47and the northern railroad through zambia is highly unreliable therefore the rail lines to the south
27:54which passed through marabili land are vital to zimbabwe if they are disrupted zimbabwe will be
28:00paralyzed oh no but there's far too much green uh being mixed in with some of the other groves over
28:09zimbabwe relies heavily on the white commercial farmers most of whom stayed on after the war and
28:14seemed determined to stay on during the current difficulties for the first two years after
28:19independence the economy boomed the lifting of united nations sanctions against rhodesia
28:25meant crops like tobacco could once again be sold openly in world markets production and wages rose
28:32but this year the worst drought in memory has combined with world recession to batter the economy
28:38farmers like jim sinclair support mr mugabe's hard line in the interest of stopping lawlessness
28:45and they see no danger of the country splitting apart no i don't think this government would allow
28:50that but if it did start taking a turn towards that i think you'd probably see even more draconian
28:57measures on the part of government in terms of trying to regain control of the area i mean they
29:01have a right to do that any country has the right to ensure its territorial integrity and i i must say
29:09that i think government is justified in doing what it is doing up to a point in madameenland although
29:15some of the methods perhaps would be a bit rougher than one would like to see but you know wars are
29:21pretty rough things and we've gone through one in this country and we all know that things are done
29:26in wartime which and i think we're facing almost a war situation there which perhaps one would prefer
29:31to forget about afterwards in one sense zanu and zapu are resuming a bitter often violent political
29:40conflict that began in 1963 when zimbabwe's nationalist movement split into the two organizations
29:48to my opinion i wish mr komo to be arrested if possible he is disturbing the country
29:58the larger concern with waging the liberation war muted their rivalry some people believe that mr mugabe wants
30:05and has found in martybililand an excuse to break the back of zapu as one step toward introducing a
30:11one-party state in zimbabwe
30:13it may be for instance that the parliamentary system zimbabwe inherited is not the best form of
30:28government for the young nation i mean we think it's a very good system for us but a lot of africans
30:34think it's very confrontational they think that it's a very odd way of conducting our affairs that
30:38the opposition opposes so to speak for the sake of opposition probably many cases opposing what they
30:44themselves did when they were in government and africans on on the whole operate by consensus
30:51and the the consensus is the one-party state difficulty is in our eyes and in fact that that would be all
30:59right if it really did operate on the basis of consensus but too often you've seen in africa the
31:05one-party state merely becoming a one-party or one-man dictatorship mr mugabe has made no secret of his
31:13desire for a one-party state it would mean that the opposition party zapu would be absorbed by his own
31:19party zanu he's planning a referendum on this issue in the next elections josiah chinamano represents
31:26a section of zapu that favors a merger we started as one movement until say 1963 when for some
31:37unfortunately personal reasons the party was split into two with the problems in certain parts of our
31:47country and the methods deployed by government or for of rooting out the lawlessness that was noticeable in
31:59certain parts of our country the methods used tended to polarize the two parties i'm not saying that it is
32:08not possible for us to come together i think it is possible but had we done it two or three years ago
32:17it would have been an easy thing but now i think it will be an uphill climb but we will reach we should
32:25reach there although josiah chinamano believes a zapu zanu merger is essential other powerful leaders of
32:33zapu are opposed but the chief leaders of this section of zapu are under house arrest or imprisoned
32:40standing trial for treason here at the high court in harare dumiso dubengwa a senior central committee
32:48member of zapu represents the most disgruntled factions of zapu but he's behind bars accused of
32:54treason and possession of illegal weapons his colleague general lookout masuku is among several
33:00leading members of zapu also standing trial two others including the real leader of zapu mr nkomo
33:08were forced into exile i've decided to drop from the government
33:17mr joshua nkomo the political demise of joshua nkomo the father of zimbabwean nationalism
33:23began a year ago in february when he was forced to leave the government
33:28immediately there was an increase in attacks by dissidents in matabili land
33:34the government discovered secret arms dumps on farms owned by nkomo
33:38giving rise to fears of plans for insurrection by nkomo's followers
33:44they seized nkomo's farms and then his passport was confiscated in february
33:51then five brigade moved in on his house in bulueo nkomo wasn't there soldiers smashed the rear window
33:59of his car then discovered his driver hiding in the servants quarters the troops shot through the window
34:05hitting the driver as he lay on his bed officials claimed the driver had pulled a gun
34:11eyewitnesses told jeremy paxman of the bbc a different story mr nkomo's driver he was just on
34:18top of his bed and then the safety because they come inside they just shoot him without talking
34:25just walked in he was lying on the bed yeah just shot he's just shooting without question
34:30mr nkomo believed his life was in danger and that he had no option but to flee well i don't think
34:36it needs any reflection it was a question of threat to my life i had to live i had to be somewhere
34:44you know that that i'm able to try and help in in cycling the the problem that had arisen
34:53with nkomo in exile mr mugabe at a rally for the party faithful leaves no doubt in anyone's mind
35:00that he wants to see zapu curbed i'm warning finally the leadership of zapu
35:09that the most important task for them now is to disarm their dissidents
35:19if they don't well we'll disarm them as a party
35:23i feel that the prime minister is misinformed when he makes the allegation that zapu as a party
35:35is sponsoring and supporting these people we of zapu have made it very very clear that we do not
35:44support these people and we have condemned them for their lawlessness it's most unfortunate that the
35:52prime minister rather than working with us to try and solve this problem that has beset our country
36:00is trying to in fact exacerbate the theme by isolating zapu leadership and assistance
36:10it would appear now that the zapu leadership has effectively been decapitated it is not possible
36:19for mr mgawe or anybody else to decapitate a party like zapu just that way by by by using violence if one
36:31wants to to to have a one party that might be the thing one party state i don't think it would be the
36:40right thing to go about it in a violent manner because you not win the hearts of the people if if if
36:47if they want that if mgawe wanted that the best thing to do is to organize to win the hearts of the
36:53people and show what he can do for them and not to to shoot them into uh submission
37:02shot into submission starved into submission matabili land is undergoing the worst drought this century
37:09worse the army instead of supplying food imposed a curfew and prevented vehicles bringing in supplies
37:16the result many of the stores in the bush closed to get food people break the curfew and walk miles to
37:22buy the mealy food which is their staple diet the curfew has now been lifted in some areas but
37:31thousands of into belly have given up all together and fled the country they travel south to botswana
37:37a few by train a few by car but the vast majority by foot
37:46francistown 50 miles south of the border is the first port of call
38:03a small dusty town a cattle station really its main claim to fame is that it has a railway station
38:19the train runs from zimbabwe to south africa always crowded with miners visiting relatives and of course
38:25cargo
38:38francistown in large part grew up around the railroad
38:42it boasts an inadequate hospital where the zimbabwean wounded can be patched up and the
38:46disease can find medicine but chiefly it can boast of peace
38:50before the refugees like the cattle francistown is merely a way station on the road to dukway more
39:00than 80 miles to the west every day more zimbabweans arrive to join the more than two and a half thousand
39:06indibelis already here the camp is run by the united nations it's only one of the u.n camps in botswana
39:16taking refugees from matabili land covering some two square miles refugees from south africa and namibia
39:26as well as zimbabwe live in tents and huts keeping body and soul together on the meager rations which
39:32is the lot of refugees everywhere although the government controlled press in zimbabwe has alleged
39:40that dukway is being used as a guerrilla base by dissidents we saw no sign of it what we did see were
39:48people so scared that they like their fellow in debele home in matabili land refused to be seen on
39:54camera to talk to any one of them man woman or child is to hear a tale of horror some have been beaten
40:02some have been shot all have been driven from their homeland when i left to launch on the 26th of
40:09february i'm a teacher i was seven seven teachers were killed at a school 27 february on the 27th of
40:20february i'm a teacher is a kamiz as you eight eight teachers and villagers were killed
40:30by who one more bubble bubble on my social ground in fifth brigade 50 brigade fifth brigade
40:39what did they do how did they kill the people
40:41mom they beat him with very big sticks and shot them did they say anything
40:51bakulu maulito in yeah bakulu maulito yes they said something
41:03they said they wanted to kill all the individuals all the people who are loyal to joshua
41:07nkomo the refugees include women and children too how old are you
41:17from where what place who's going up in zimbabwe in zimbabwe why are you here
41:24one and done that came here to seek refuge why what do you want
41:37because soldiers kill people did you see soldiers kill people
41:45yes he saw them tell me what you saw
41:47i saw soldiers beating people and they hit them in a very big wall and buried them alive
42:06bobby peter in the clear open up uh
42:13somewhere alive somewhere dead did they say anything to you
42:19they asked me where the so-called distance way
42:23what did you say what children that was they didn't know them
42:28then what did you do what's the sense that we've gone up
42:32i suppose that this is a school of the school of the
42:35third of my teacher about to rule about
42:38then they took us and and he gathered us in a school
42:42and they showed to the our teachers in front of us
42:46is that when you decided to run away
42:47is this cut level to one of the legal now
42:50yeah although most refugees we spoke to come from the rural areas
42:55some had fled the towns and cities i come from zimbabwe
43:00from what town or from blow a while you arrived when i arrived here yesterday
43:06what happened to make you come they surrounded me
43:11twice around my store they wanted ten men armed with guns came and they wanted to kill me
43:19ten men what kind of men kukurawunde soldiers from salisbury from galley
43:28and why did they want you they said they want to kill all the leaders
43:33you know mr the part of mr komov and you are one and i'm one of the party leaders
43:39so will you ever go back to zimbabwe i don't think that i don't think of going back at present because
43:48they'll kill me unless if certain arrangements have been made or
43:53a stoppage of some kind has been made not to kill the people a good number of the people have been
44:03killed trollochow is the worst it's the worst why because a good number of children and women
44:11all people and as well as anything has been killed and a good number again has been killed
44:17random found about victory where a big pit was dug and a good number of people they were thrown in
44:25one pit pile like 13 and buried there um what has happened is very nasty isn't it i mean we've all
44:33seen the television pictures of uh of what went on with the fifth brigade and uh uh i don't think
44:40anybody can say that the situation is not serious but you know if you look at it from the point of view
44:47of all the participants it isn't any it isn't in anybody's interests that this should go any
44:52further i mean reconciliation is in everybody's interest in the first place the and abeli are a
44:57minority and therefore it is in their interest to get some modus vivendi and mr cinnamano the new leader
45:04of in mr kano's absence the new leader of the uh of the zaku party and curious enough a shana and
45:12therefore to some extent uh uh unique uh will obviously try to do that and he's obviously
45:18trying to do that certainly isn't in mr mugabe's interest to let this continue because i can't
45:24imagine that any investors in the united states or in europe are going to invest money in his economy
45:30or in the development of his economy while there is the prospect of an inter-tribal civil war and so
45:35he can't want it and and so there isn't anybody to whose advantage this this is and i think we must
45:43hope that good sense will prevail uh it will need leadership and resolution and magnanimity on the
45:51part of all those concerned both mr mugabe and mr incomo must share the blame for the turmoil that now
45:58envelopes marabili land mugabe's failure to acknowledge that his own army has engaged in
46:05what is almost a pogrom against the indibeli alienates an important section of the nation he was elected to
46:11govern mr incomo for his part has tolerated what can only be described as sedition emanating from
46:20important elements of zapu the relationship between zanu and zapu has always been volatile merger might
46:27avoid potential tragedy their differences seem small when measured against the fact that zimbabwe
46:33is suffering the worst drought of the century the abilities of both men and both parties are needed
46:39to address this problem and to face the looming threat from neighboring south africa which wants no
46:45nearby symbol of black success that challenges apartheid mr mugabe and mr incomo would do well to look south
46:53to see a real foe but at the moment they choose to see each other as the enemy
47:07that report was finished just three weeks ago joshua incomo remains at least temporarily in great britain
47:13robert mugabe plans an official visit to this country next month and in zimbabwe the crisis goes on
47:20with me to talk about zimbabwe's future charlie cobb and anthony lewis who has reported extensively on
47:26southern africa in general and zimbabwe in particular tony let me ask you first is there any possibility
47:33these two leaders might knight for the good of zimbabwe i was there most recently in january and i
47:40thought the answer was yes indeed the two men were supposed to meet on the 14th of january to discuss the
47:46very thing that charlie ended the show about a merger of their parties but the meeting was
47:50cancelled and at this stage after all that's happened personal and now the the blood between
47:57them and their peoples their parties i would say the chances are very slim what happened to split
48:04these two men up initially and they fought together well i think you have to go a little easy on the
48:10fought together they really fought separately the armies never were together and um mugabe resented
48:17the fact and his people resented the fact that they did almost all the fighting and como stayed in
48:23zambia and his his forces his guerrilla forces did not do much active fighting and it goes back a very
48:29long way the film rightly describes joshua incomo as the father of african nationalism in zimbabwe
48:37but during all those years 20 years there were successive splits away from him it wasn't only
48:41robert mugabe who doubted him as a leader uh many thought that incomo was a compromiser who cared too
48:48much about his his personal pleasures and um so it goes back a long way charlie what do you see as the
48:55future the most immediate question is whether or not the pressure being exerted on both mugabe and incomo by
49:03uh colleagues or backers from independent africa jewish of tanzania samora michelle of mozambique
49:10kenneth kaunda of zambia is going to have any effect in terms of bringing the two men together all of
49:17those african leaders are telling both mugabe and incomo bury the hatchet for the sake of the nation
49:24and these nations all gave both zanu and zapu a considerable amount of support uh it may have
49:31some effect uh as a big question mark over that i think for the long term given the blood that has
49:39been spilled in matabili land and the inevitable alienation that grows up around there i think
49:44zimbabwe is faced with a very serious problem uh of possible permanent disorder in matabili land being
49:53encouraged and in some instances even subsidized in covert ways by neighboring south africa what would
50:00this do as a regard to a crisis in in black majority rule would they not be looking to zimbabwe other
50:08western nations nations in africa but looking to zimbabwe to be the hope of this region what will
50:13happen if this experiment so to speak doesn't work in zimbabwe well that's the very issue uh i think
50:20the suggestion at the end of the documentary that um south africa or its white rulers do not want any
50:27successful symbols of majority rule nearby i think that's true and it's a kind of self-fulfilling
50:33prophecy if you say black majority rule can't work and then you do your best to keep it from working and
50:40it doesn't work uh you could say you see it's best for us as a white minority it's best for everybody to
50:46keep control nobody knows at least uh in honesty i have to say i don't know exactly what south africa
50:52is doing but there are a few clues there were four south african soldiers who were caught and killed
50:57inside zimbabwe last summer on what was evidently a raid they had equipment with them to blow up bridges
51:03there was another soldier caught with uh mining equipment that is mines not digging but blowing things
51:09up and uh the press in south africa the government is very very antagonistic while i was there just now
51:16the prime minister spoke of the red flag over harare the the capital of zimbabwe as if uh it were a
51:23communist country whereas in fact it's very friendly to the united states and mugabe is bitterly anti-soviet
51:29so there's an antagonism there how far it goes in actually helping dissidents i really don't know
51:35what about outside pressure from western countries indirectly on mugabe yes i think certainly britain
51:44which invested quite a bit of diplomatic capital in in reaching a negotiated settlement in zimbabwe
51:50and also has considerable amount of economic uh interest in zimbabwe is quietly i have reason to
51:57believe is quietly trying to encourage uh some patch up between the uh the two men i would think the united
52:04states government would be doing something quite active especially with mugabe coming here we have
52:09this quite substantial aid program uh it's doubtful that congress is going to want to continue it at
52:14that level if in fact the country is being torn apart and the fifth brigade is carrying on in an
52:19improper way a brutal way so there's every reason for the united states officials to say to mr mugabe if
52:25you want to keep getting that aid you've got to shape up it seems with the economic pressures in the
52:30country and the drought and maybe some of these outside economic considerations perhaps they might
52:36be moving forward mugabe might be moving forward toward toward uh getting back together in some way
52:41negotiating with nkomo well logic is all on that side uh the only trouble is that in life it isn't
52:48always logical in politics it's not only their language differences their historical differences but
52:54they were supported by different people during the war and como had soviet support mugabe had chinese
52:59support there are many antagonisms there i hope it works but it's tough what about tribal differences
53:04cultural differences i think tribal differences is a complicating factor but not a defining factor
53:11i think what defines the situation is a very deep political and personal conflict between two men
53:18and two parties that is becoming increasingly complicated now by the tribal distinctions or
53:24ethnic distinctions that can be made trouble is i can sympathize with robert mugabe as prime minister not
53:32wanting to allow this kind of dissident activity after all kidnappings killings to go on
53:36but i'm very doubtful that the mode of repression can be the answer because it just doesn't seem to work
53:44anthony lewis thank you very much charlie cobb thank you and now an update on a story that
53:49we broadcast three months ago it dealt with the 1979 killings of communist demonstrators in greensboro
53:55north carolina by members of the clan and american nazis last thursday a federal grand jury indicted
54:04this man edward dawson he was the focus of our film a police informer whose story raised questions about
54:12the role of the role of the police in the shootout indicted along with dawson virgil griffin head of
54:18the local clan together with four other clansmen and three american nazis the charge conspiracy to
54:26interfere with the federally protected rights of the communist demonstrators today no police or federal
54:33agents have been indicted next week on frontline an investigation into the aftermath of disaster
54:42and those caught in the middle of the lawyers race to the courthouse
54:47new orleans pan and 759 goes down 153 dead and there may be a billion dollars in lawsuits
54:58it's the name of the game money it's a fight lawyers and insurance companies
55:04doing battle over money and trapped in the middle victims families
55:11the program is called air crash it is next week on frontline i'm jessica savage
55:26the
55:31the
55:33the
Be the first to comment