It was reported a few days later that the Rhodesian police had banned publication of the Protestant monthly newspaper Umbowo under the emergency powers regulations. Umbowo, which is produced in Umtali, has a largely African readership of around 20,000.
On 17 August the Ministry of Law and Order confirmed that the police had closed down the Chikore mission school run by the United Church of Christ in the Chipinga district, 12 miles from the Mozambique border and deep in the war zone. No specific reason was given for the move beyond the general provision under the Emergency Powers (Maintenance of Law and Order) Regulations for the closure of establishments "in the interests of public safety or public order." White residents of the Chipinga area have claimed that guerillas have been given help at the mission and that arms and ammunition have been stored there. Certain members of the mission staff have now been prohibited from remaining on or entering the premises, while a secondary school teacher, Mr. John Lowe, and his wife Joy, have been told that their Rhodesian citizenship is to be revoked - in effect, that they are to be deported. The Lowes, originally from South Africa, have been at Chikore for 18 years and took out Rhodesian citizenship in 1960.
Chikore school has now been taken over by the Ministry of Education which, according to the regime, intends reopening for Forms I and II pupils next term. Places are being sought for those in higher forms in other schools.
SCHOOLCHILDREN ARRESTED
At least 46 African teenagers are known to have been arrested by Salisbury police following demonstrations against proposals by the Smith regime to conscript certain, as yet unspecified categories of Africans for military service. The proposals form part of the new National Service Bill, which passed its second reading in the Rhodesian House of Assembly on 27 July despite opposition from African MPs. Three days later, 300 black students from the University of Rhodesia watched closely by police - staged a silent and peaceful demonstration in the centre of Salisbury in protest at the call-up plans. One of the marchers, Mr. Moses Zinyemba, the president of the University's Student Representative Committee, told the press that the demonstration had "been sparked off by a spontaneous feeling among the University's 700 African students. We didn't start the war and we have nothing to protect. We definitely feel it is morally and technically wrong for us to fight."
In the course of the next two weeks, feeling spread to a number of African secondary schools in and around Salisbury. On 2 August, a group of 120 school students walked more than 30 km from Goromonzi into Salisbury carrying placards and posters. They were stopped by police in Jameson Avenue on the outskirts of the city and sent home. On the same day in Umtali, on the eastern border, 50 senior pupils of St. Augustine's Mission School near Penhalonga staged a silent march through Main Street before being dispersed and sent home by police. The pupils will have to reapply for admission to the school at the start of the new term in September. On 5 August it was reported that legal action was being taken against a number of demonstrators following a protest in Marandellas by 100 school students. A police spokesman said that there had been no "incidents" on the march but the students were considered to have taken part in an "illegal procession". On 9 August, after pupils had made 2 unsuccessful attempts to march into Salisbury, the regime closed down St. Ignatius College at Chishawasha for an indefinite period, and sent all 340 students home.
Demonstrations nevertheless continued and on 13 August 24 pupils from a Salisbury secondary school, all aged between 15 and 18, were convicted in Harare Magistrate's Court for their part in a protest march earlier that morning. All pleaded guilty to taking part in a procession for which no permit had been granted. Evidence was led by the prosecution that the teenagers had carried placards reading "No call up for blacks", "He who started the war should stop it, we did not", "If you can't fight then surrender", "I won't fight my own brother" and "The poor have nothing to defend." Passing of sentence was conditionally postponed for 5 years. On 14 August, a police spokesman confirmed that a further 22 school students, all pupils of Highfields Senior School who had staged a protest march, had been arrested and would be charged.
On 20 August, the Minister of Education, Mr. Philip Smith, told the House of Assembly that African pupils who had demonstrated against military call-up for blacks had been suspended. He added that some of them might be expelled.
PROTECTED VILLAGES
According to a ministerial reply to a question in the House of Assembly, 116 "protected villages", or heavily fortified camps for African residents of the operational areas, have now been established by the Smith regime in various parts of Rhodesia - 3 in Centenary district, 12 in Mount Darwin, 21 in Concession, 10 in Shamva and 70 elsewhere. "Consolidated villages", the regime's second line of defence, are presumably not included in the figure.
Responsibility for guarding "protected villages" has now been transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to a new unit under the Ministry of Defence, the Guard Force. The majority of Guard Force recruits are African ex-servicemen, many of them former officers and NCOs in the Rhodesian African Rifles. Speaking at a passing-out parade of the first Guard Force unit at Chikurubi barracks, the Minister of Defence, P.K. van de Byl, said that their posting to protected villages would free the army for more active service. He told the men that their duties could be regarded as an "extension of their old regiment" and hoped that "before long you will have killed your first terrorist."
One of the few instances of forced population removal to be reported in recent weeks is that of 6,000 residents on the Chikore Mission farm run by the United Church of Christ in Chipinga district. They were moved in June at the instigation of the security forces into 3 consolidated villages 40 km away. The regime does not appear to be making any long term plans to allow people to return to their homes and has recently opened a R$900,000 administrative centre in the Mudzi district for a catchment area containing 18 protected villages. A similar centre has been set up in Rushinga as part of the protected village strategy.
The regime has confirmed that protected villages are being set up in the east and south-east of Rhodesia although few details are ever released.
BATSWANA CITIZENS ATTACKED
In response to incursions by Rhodesian security forces, and in an effort to protect civilians from attack, the Botswana police are to start regular patrols along their country's border with Rhodesia. Rhodesian troops are alleged to have crossed the border at Maitengwe in north-east Botswana on 6 and 7 August, interrogated Batswana villagers at gunpoint about guerillas suspected of being in the area, and searched people and homes. In other incidents, Batswana are alleged to have been fired on by Rhodesian troops for straying across the ill-defined border during curfew hours. Botswana's President, Sir Seretse Khama, stated during a recent visit to the People's Republic of China that his country's borders and air space had been violated by both Rhodesia and South Africa "in an arrogant show of unnecessary force against a powerless country."
