Considerable publicity has been given in the Rhodesian press to the throwing open of a number of protected villages under the terms of the regime's "ceasefire" programme. By the middle of September, residents in a total of 70 protected villages in the Mukumbura, Mudzi, Mtoko and Mrewa TTLs in the north-east of Zimbabwe were reported to have been told that they were now free to leave the keeps and to return to their original homes.
Despite previous denials by regime spokesmen that any keeps were due to be dismantled, Mr. Smith told a press conference in Salisbury on 14 September that a number of protected villages "way down in the south-east" had been opened up "a few months ago." He implied, however, that a halt would now be called: "I believe that it isn't going to go any further than what we are doing now. The intention is to see how this goes and whether it works or not". In July 1978, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were about 220 protected villages in existence, accommodating about 450,000 people. (The real number may be considerably higher; ZANU (Patriotic Front), for example, has estimated that there are over 270 protected villages, with a population of more than half a million).
Over the last year or so a number of protected and consolidated villages have been attacked and destroyed by Patriotic Front guerillas. While the regime's decision to now formally open a number of protected villages has been hailed as evidence of the success of the "internal settlement" and its accompanying ceasefire programme, it may simply amount to tacit recognition of the fact that the system has broken down under pressure from the armed guerilla struggle. A number of protected villages reported to have been dismantled are in martial law areas (the Uzumba and Mangwende TTLs, in particular, which together constitute the bulk of the Mrewa tribal area, were among those declared under martial law on 4 October).
Another factor may be the rising incidence of crime and desertion among members of the Guard Force and district assistants responsible for the day-to-day administration of protected and consolidated villages. In one such case, in which a deserter from the Guard Force was sentenced to five years imprisonment for robbing a bus, a state witness from the CID told the court that "a large number of armed robberies were being committed by security force personnel as they were the only people who had access to firearms". The courts have also been dealing with a significant number of cases of rape by district assistants. The dismantling of protected villages is thus a symptom of the continuing disintegration of civil administration in the rural areas and the consequent reshaping of the regime's defence strategy in favour of consolidating troops in key areas.
Many, if not the vast majority of those "freed" from protected villages, furthermore, are destined to join the rapidly expanding population of war refugees. The regime has apparently made no arrangements to rehabilitate those concerned, or to compensate them for goods and property destroyed at the time they were removed 'behind the wire' or subsequently. The Zimbabwe Times, for example, reporting on a keep opening ceremony presided over by members of the regime's Ministerial Council, commented that "freedom for most of the tribespeople from Mudzonga means rebuilding homes from the home that used to be and no longer is. Most homes are now derelict rondavels with the eaves turned upwards".
Conditions in the "plastic towns" that have mushroomed up in Salisbury, Bulawayo and other towns as people have fled from the compressive and highly dangerous conditions prevailing in the war zones, are appalling. The International Red Cross has confirmed that the black population of Bulawayo has doubled from around 250,000 to 500,000, many of whom are living illegally as squatters, without basic sanitary facilities, shelter or means of livelihood. In Salisbury, there are estimated to be 4,000 war refugees squatting in Harare alone.
