the conclusion briefing document Repression in Rhodesia' produced by the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF). It spells out in detail how Britain's maintain the status supremacy; extracts from the report are printed below.
The State of Emergency Through action announced on 18 January, Lord Soames has decreed that the February elections will be held under the terms of the national State of Emergency...
The repressive measures presently in force under the State of Emergency include:
*powers of arrest and indefinite detention without charge or trial;
*the control, property, livestock and crops;
*the control of freedom including the removal of people into protected villages or keeps;
*control of the semination of information, particularly that relating to the security situation, censcurfew andresshe establishmentions:
*curfews defoliated, mined and free-fire zones;
clinics, churches and control of water supplies...
According to a British spokesperson Salisbury, ( as a whole is such as to conclude that there is for Rhodesia Front (ZAPU); however, Soames' action indicated 'that there will be no free and fair elections because purpose is to limit the movement of people and freedom of speech'...
Martial Law Martial law, first declared by the regime under the Emergency Powers September 1978 and subsequently extended to virtually dune country, prisons, remains in force...
While these powers are not fundamentally different those already under the State of Emergency, they have very serious implications in that the persons authorised to enforce them are defined extremely widely, to include virtually all public servants, the army, airforce, police, police reservists, the secunty force auxiliaries, mercenaries employed as vigilantes by the priyale seetos...
While the operations of the special court martials were suspendca following his arrival in Rhodesia, there has been no move to release those sentenced to prison terms by them or those detained without charge under the martial law regulations...
Protected Villages There appear to be no plans to dismantle the protected villages, or keeps, to allow inmates to return to their old homes in time for the the agreement this was one of the matters left to be resolved by the Governor.
The regime, for its part, has indicated its intention to retain the protected villages and 4uucald to be using the auxiliaries, the majority allegiance to Bishop Muzorewa, to control and administer them..
of protected villages constant armed guard, have their freedom of movement severely restricted, and are exposed to considerable violence and personal abuse at the hands of the security forces.
Octoner 1979, soldier was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on various charges of rape and assault against the residents of the protected village under his care. According to the magistrate, the charges made horrifying and gruesome reading, and showed that the people were subject to savage and brutal onslaughts where little or no regard was paid to age, sex or the condition of those attacked'.
Since the ceasefire there have been reports of continued arrest of inmates of protected villages, and interrogation and beatings by the police, district assistants According to a resident of a protected village. north of Salisbury, Socialist Challenge 7 February 1980 Page 12 La new on 'Political role to quo of • white seizure and destruction of of movement, collection and disincluding establishment grinding-mills, and the in the governor's judgement the a state of emergency A spokesperson for the Patriotic said that Lord the whole Regulations includg provided for and foreign Lord soames Lancaster House The security force Front of whom UWE high level the most live under example, a white all the assistants, and auxiliaries.
*things have got much WHITE mercenaries now serving Lord Soames in Zimbabwe worse here since the ceasefire. Now they say hey will shoot anybody who is even a minute late coming in at night'...
Election Arrangements Sir John Boynton, the Election Commissioner, has made it clear that the elections will 'differ slightly in procedure' organized by the regime in April 1979...
main features COOT elections, apart from the fact that the Patriotic parties were not involved, prevailing state of martial law, of military mobilization involving extensive call-up Rhodesia's history, and the concerted and systematic use of a wide variety of positive and negative inducements to get voters to the polls. Once there, voters were required to choose between one or other of the parties to the 'internal settlement' agreement.
A number of unsatisfactory aspects of the forthcoming elections for the 80 Common Roll (African) seats, due to be held on 27, 28 and 29 February, have nevertheless been conceded by parties to ine agreement — for example, the fact that there is to be no registration of voters. public service, notably district commissioners and their assistants, will play an important role in running polling stations and in the general conduct of the elections.
District commissioners and who fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Home (formerly Internal) Affairs, are armed and trained in counter-insurgency tactics. They share the same powers of arrest in Zimbabwe agreed at Lancaster 'civil police' maintaining those transitional April 1979 identify were the of manpower years has always been Lancaster -House wins the December 1979).
The regime's The BSAP 35,000 reservists reservists are white. district police the leguidl and detention without charge under Emergency Powers Regulations as the police, and the same powers under martial law as the rest of the security forces.
Under the pre-independence arrangements House, the Rhodesian (BSAP) are responsible law and order during period, including the themselves (Annex D, paragraph 20).
• It is in practice extremely difficult to Many sections of the British South Africa Police as 'civil police', in view of the extent to which the police have been mobilised to fight the guerilla war. The BSAP is a heavily armed paramilitary body virtually all of whose able-bodied members have been deployed on front line counter-insurgency duty in recent The impartiality of the police, whose task control and suppress nationalist political activity, is also a matter for concern. According to one report in the British press, BSAP members have been warned. by senior regime officials that they will lose their jobs, if not their lives, if the Patriotic Front (Financial Times, comprise an estimated 8,000 regulars, including national servicemen, Whereas two-thirds of the regulars are Africans the great majority of Lord Soames has decided that the regular on their own will be insufficient to maintain law and order during the elections and has authorised the deployment not only of armed including the reservists and army territorials.
for the 28 January to 5 March 1980.
deployed were white.
April 1979 issue of the weekly Sandinista and crisis in France.
cheques/POs the auxiliaries, but also the mobilization of police Call-up papers for a general mobilization of the security forces were due to be sent out in mid-January and it was subsequently reported that all fit white men between the ages of 25 and 29 had been called up for five weeks from During the 1979 elections an estimated 100,000 armed personnel were mobilized to "protect' voters. Around two-thirds of those Indications are thus that the February 1980 elections will take place in much the same climate of military preparedness as those of *Further details from: IDAF, 2 Amen Court, London EC4M 7BX (tel. 01-606 6123).
Intercontinental Press AN eyewitness account of the 200,000-strong anti-junta demonstration held in El Salvador on 22 January, and the government repression unleashed against it, is featured in the latest Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor (Vol 18, No 4). Also in this issue: a balance-sheet of the revolution, and an analysis of the 'creeping Individual copies cost 30p plus 10p pop, IPI subscriptions work out much cheaper at £ll for one year (48 issues), £6 for six months (24 issues), or £3 for 10 weeks. Please make out to 'Intercontinental. Press' and send to: IP/I, PO Box 50, London Ni
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