Mystery Massacre

Not since the My Lai atrocities came to light in 1969 had a tiny village caused such an uproar. Father Adrian Hastings, a British Catholic priest, alleged that Portuguese government troops had gone on a murderous rampage in the Portuguese Mozambique village of Wiriyamu last Dec. 16. The priest, quoting reports from Spanish missionary priests, claimed that Portuguese soldiers killed some 400 villagers suspected of sympathizing with Frelimo, the Mozambique Liberation Front.

Then began the denials. Dr. Marcello Caetano, the Portuguese Prime Minister, who was on an official visit to London, said that his government's preliminary inquiry showed a massacre of 400 villagers "could not have taken place." A Catholic bishop in Mozambique who in published reports claimed that he had seen the dead bodies later stubbornly declined either to confirm or deny that there had been a massacre. In Lisbon, officials insisted that Wiriyamu did not even exist. Indeed, Father Hastings two weeks ago placed it in western central Mozambique, but next day corrected himself, saying it was in the eastern Tete province. Reporters have been searching for it ever since, and for anyone who claims to have seen the massacre. TIME Correspondent Peter Hawthorne joined a trek last week and afterward sent this report:

The town of Tete bristles with troops, military roadblocks and armored vehicles. People are being moved out of isolated villages and relocated in protected settlements called aldeamentos, where troops and home-guard units keep Frelimo infiltrators at bay.

A 30-man army escort took us to a place called Wiliamo, about eight miles from Tete. The guide was a black army private who said he knew of the village.

He pronounced it "Wiriamu"--many Africans pronounce "l" as "r"--but wrote it "Wiliamo." It was the only place of that name that he knew in the region, he said. Of course there are villages with vaguely similar names all over the areas variously mentioned by Father Hastings, and presumably any of them could be the massacre site.

The village, perhaps ten to fifteen huts, had clearly been abandoned in a hurry. But there was no obvious sign of a firefight--no bullet marks in the tree stumps or huts. It would require nothing less than a team of forensic experts to track down any evidence of a massacre.

No Angels. "My men aren't angels or they wouldn't be good soldiers," said Major Jose Carvalho, who led the army escort. "But a massacre of 400? During my two years service here I've never heard of such an incident, and if I did it would be the reason for a large-scale military inquiry."

Two priests of the Spanish Burgos Fathers who earlier supported allegations of the massacre have been detained by Portuguese authorities in Lourengo Marques on unspecified charges "relating to the security of the state." Their fellow priests at the Mission of Sao Pedro, near Tete, will say nothing. Some Portuguese here believe it is quite possible that a massacre did occur. The secretary of the Bishop of Tete, Father Manuel Mouro, told me:

"In a climate of war anything is possible --but between the possible and the real, there may be a big difference."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.