The idea that Bishop Muzorewa is a "man of peace" whose main aim as Prime Minister of "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia" is to bring the war in Rhodesia to an end as speedily as possible is one of the most energetically promoted and (on the surface at least) persuasive claims of the internal settlement leadership.
However, there is little to indicate a spirit of reconciliation in the policies and statements of the new government of "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia". On the contrary, Bishop Muzorewa and his colleagues in the internal settlement are now actively assisting to implement the long-standing Rhodesian Front policies of using repressive methods to crush all resistance to minority rule. They are fully committed to confrontation with their political opponents and to securing the military defeat of the Patriotic Front.
Since the April elections the war, far from diminishing as would be the case if the Bishop's claim of mass support - and in particular to widespread "hidden" support among the Patriotic Front guerilla forces - were true, has intensified. The regime's own military communiques confirm as clearly as any other source that the advent of "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia" has brought no real change to the majority of the people, and certainly no peace. A total of 61 communiques issued by Combined Operations HQ over a 12 week period from the beginning of April to 24 June (covering the election period) reported the following deaths at the hands of the security forces:
• "Terrorists" 1,325 • "Terrorist collaborators" 331 • Stock thieves 25 • Black civilians "killed in crossfire" 67
Total: 1,748
The following were reported killed as a result of guerilla activity:
• Members of the security forces 100 • White civilians 13 • Black civilians allegedly murdered by guerillas or killed in landmine explosions 298
Total: 411
Grand Total: 2,159
These statistics continue the high death rate of March 1979, when a record 428 "terrorists", 100 "collaborators" and 29 members of the security forces were reported killed. Since 1972, well over 16,000 people, even on the basis of the regime's own figures, have lost their lives in the war.
The statistics, furthermore, do not include refugees and others killed by the security forces during raids into the neighbouring front line states. It is possible that the category of black civilians allegedly "murdered by terrorists" includes casualties among the auxiliary forces or private armies; while the term "terrorist", for many years used by the regime as a catchall word to describe anyone thought to represent a threat to the security of the state, undoubtedly includes many non-combatants.
(According to ZANU (Patriotic Front), the casualties reported by the regime as "terrorists" killed by the security forces also include members of the auxiliary forces who have been posing as genuine guerillas in order to confuse the local population of the operational areas.)
Mr Robert Mugabe, President of ZANU (Patriotic Front), has stated that during the run-up to the April elections a total of 3,647 civilians were killed by Rhodesian troops and described as "curfew breakers", "terrorist collaborators", "cattle thieves" or as "caught in cross-fire". The figures were collected by ZANU via an on-the-spot commission.
Large scale casualties reported by ZAPU (Patriotic Front) include over 112 civilians killed by Rhodesian troops on 7/8 May. Over 30 of these were villagers killed in the Beit Bridge area when troops attacked buildings and property with artillery and small arms. On 16 May, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Voice programme on Luanda radio reported the massacre of over 55 civilians inside Zimbabwe over the preceding few days, including two newly born babies, children under the age of five, women, old people, blind and crippled. On 17 May, Combined Operations HQ reported the death of 98 "terrorists", a number of whom it described as "locally recruited" - the highest number ever reported in a single communique as having been killed inside Zimbabwe.
On 5 July the House of Assembly unanimously approved the extension of the State of Emergency for a further six months.
The newly appointed regime President Mr. J. Gumede revealed at the opening of parliament on 26 June that under the terms of the new constitution, the national State of Emergency, which has been continuously in force in Rhodesia since shortly before UDI, would continue for a period of 30 days from that day. Prior to the expiry of this period a motion for its renewal would be presented to the House of Assembly and the Senate.
Mr. Gumede said that the government of "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia" would give the highest priority to the re-establishment and maintenance of law and order and the elimination of "terrorism". The government, he said, had "no alternative but to resort to the exceptional powers permitted under the state of emergency and all other means available to it to safeguard the integrity and security of the state".
