Terror in Matabeleland

By Marguerite Johnson

First chickens, then goats, then children The report from Zimbabwe's Bishops' Conference, an organization of Roman Catholic churchmen, was not pleasant reading for Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. It accused the Zimbabwe army of waging a campaign of terror in parts of Matabeleland province, into which government troops had been sent in January to flush out antigovernment rebels. The bishops charged that physical brutality was commonplace against the area's 450,000 inhabitants. "People are beaten up on the mere suspicion that they are helping dissidents or when they say they do not know anything about dissidents," said the report. It charged that army commanders had adopted a "policy of starvation," telling villagers that they "would first have to eat their chickens, then their goats, then their cattle and then their own children."

The bishops' charges echoed other reports in recent months. Refugees who fled into neighboring Botswana told of beatings, rape and torture by government forces, and of villagers being denied food supplies as a result of a stringent 18-hour curfew and a ban on transport in and out of the region. The bishops' report, which was given to the government two weeks before it was released publicly last week, stung the Prime Minister. Mugabe, 60, who was brought up a Catholic and educated at the Catholic Kutama Mission, wished the churchmen "success in their prayers," but declared that "the task of running the country belongs to the government."

At Independence Day ceremonies on the fourth anniversary of Zimbabwe's nationhood last week, Mugabe defended his government's policies in Matabeleland. "We have built more roads, schools, clinics and boreholes in that area than we have anywhere else in the country," he said. As for the government campaign against the rebels, he declared that the situation "has been brought under control." The curfew has been cut back to the period from dusk to dawn, and buses and private transportation are once again permitted. President Canaan Banana, who is a member of the Matabele tribe, assured Zimbabweans that the curfew that still existed in some parts of the province would "not last a day longer than necessary."

The troubled territory has been a problem off and on since the country achieved independence in 1980, when rivalry between the two former guerrilla confederates, Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, broke into virtual tribal warfare. Matabeleland is the homeland of the Matabele tribe and of Nkomo, and Mugabe's victory in the nationwide elections moved many of Nkomo's supporters to become rebellious. Nkomo himself was sacked from the Cabinet two years ago, after he was accused of plotting to overthrow the government. The territory is also plagued by armed bandits who kill as well as plunder. Over the past two years, dozens of white farmers have been murdered. At least 75 people were murdered by anti-government terrorists in the last half of 1983. In March, saboteurs blew up the country's main power station at Hwange, causing nationwide electricity shortages.

Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister, Simbi Mubako, has repeatedly charged that South Africa has been supplying the rebels with bases, weapons and funds. Mugabe also blames Nkomo for failing to condemn the violence by his supporters. But every time government troops have been sent into the province, there have been charges that the army was as bad as or worse than the dissidents. A special combat unit, the Fifth Brigade, acquired an especially notorious reputation. Last year, however, their North Korean advisers returned home, and a resident British military unit took over advanced training of the Fifth Brigade. When the troops returned to Matabeleland early this year after a rise in dissident activity, he warned them to practice "humanity and humility." But soon there were new charges of brutality.

The charges have been difficult to verify, since foreign journalists have been barred from the troubled area and the local press is government controlled. Reporters have had to rely on sporadic accounts by refugees and occasional covert excursions into the curfew area to talk to locals. A Western diplomat told TIME last week that the British press reports had exaggerated the stories of killings and massacres in the territory. He said there had been a few hundred deaths as a result of army atrocities in recent months, but not the thousands some have alleged.

Those reports have angered Mugabe, who is concerned that they are frightening away much needed investment. The country is undergoing difficult economic times. A severe drought, now in its third year, has crippled agriculture land caused widespread hunger in the region. Formerly one of the continent's exporters of food, Zimbabwe has used up all its stockpiles and this year will be forced to import 700,000 tons of corn. The shortages are aggravated by the presence of some 150,000 refugees from neighboring Mozambique who have crossed into Zimbabwe in search of food. To alleviate the country's economic woes, Mugabe's government has imposed strict new austerity measures. In an effort to cut foreign exchange and balance of payments deficits, almost all forms of currency payments abroad have been halted. Still, the country has a good agricultural base and is expected to recover once the rains resume.

The nagging problems of internal strife may not be resolved so easily. At a gathering of local editors in Harare last week, the Prime Minister hinted that he might impose even tighter restrictions on foreign journalists, whom he charged with a campaign to discredit his government. "It is far from being as ugly as they portray it," he said. "Zimbabwe will never die because the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the Times of London and the New York Times continue to report unfavorably about us. We continue to make progress and to use whatever means are within our boundaries to survive as a nation."

--By Marguerite Johnson.

Reported by Marsh Clark/Dukwe, Botswana

With reporting by Marsh Clark