An eye witness account has been obtained from a reliable source of a battle between Rhodesian security forces and guerillas, in which seven African civilians were killed. The battle, which took place in the eastern region at the end of 1977, was reported in a communique issued by the regime's Combined Operations H.Q. as: "security forces have killed four terrorists and seven collaborators." The detailed account which follows is a telling commentary on the extent to which the regime has suppressed the real facts of the situation inside the country.
"On Thursday a group of the Boys arrived in the village in the early hours of the morning. The village is only 4 km. from my home. It is where most of my relatives live.
"At about 11.45 the army had encircled the village and the airforce began to reinforce the ground force and firing began from both the air and ground forces and there was bombing from the air.
"There was terrible panic in the whole village. People were running in all directions as both sides began to attack each other. In less than ten minutes most of the people in this crowded village had managed to hide themselves in their huts. "As more and more soldiers were brought into the village by a big aeroplane the firing began to grow more dangerous for all in the village. It became impossible for anyone to go out. The soldiers found it difficult to get close to the heart of the village where the Boys were.
"The battle was on until about 5.35 p.m. when the last shot was heard, and the two helicopters left at 5.40 p.m.
"After the battle we found five people who lived in this village dead — three girls, one man and one baby, and also one young man from a nearby school and an old man who was passing by at the time of contact. The total number of civilians killed was seven.
"In hospital are three people. Mrs. M. is in hospital with bullets in her neck. Her baby was shot dead on her back. These four were shot by the soldiers in their huts. Two people were shot outside their huts.
"Silas' house was completely destroyed. The kitchen was burnt and the bedrooms and sitting room had all the windows and doors broken or burnt and nearly all that he had worked for for many years had been destroyed. He has lost all of his life's savings.
"I personally went to the police station in an effort to identify and collect the dead from our village only to be told that they had been taken to A....... for cremation. This horrified us. We asked why and were told that we had reported rather late. They told us that they had been asking people to come and identify and collect their dead.
"This was untrue because they knew where they had killed and collected the dead. But when we had to go to A...... we discovered to our horror that the dead were being buried at B....... in a mass grave. A 'bulldozer' was used for this purpose.
"The other thing that terribly disturbed us was that the dead were displayed outside naked and people asked to go and see them. It was then difficult to recognise them because some had their faces completely destroyed and they were naked.
"It is unthinkable in our culture to ask people to look at people who are dead. This is a way to try and show their might and instill fear in us in a horrible manner. In our culture we don't show disrespect to a dead man! No man should handle a dead man disrespectfully.
"The people in the TTL have no protection from either army or the Police Force. Both seem to be the enemy of the people!!"
