Word: commonwealths
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Since Britain's Lord Soames became Governor of Zimbabwe Rhodesia last Dec. 12, some 21,600 guerrillas have flocked into Commonwealth monitoring camps in observance of the ceasefire. But Soames has been attacked for many of his political decisions-such as permitting South African troops to remain at the border crossing of Beit Bridge, and using armed "auxiliaries" in remote rural areas. Last week, in his first interview as Governor, Soames spent 75 minutes with TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter discussing some of the problems he faces. McWhirter'sreport...
Soames has recently received a barrage of criticism from both Patriotic Front wings, as well as their allies in the frontline and Commonwealth states. Critics of the British viceroy accuse him of blatant bias for authorizing the Rhodesian security forces to track down and shoot guerrillas who "unlawfully" remain outside the cease-fire camps. Claiming that 17 of his men were killed by the Rhodesians last week while trying to get to a camp, Nkomo demanded that the 1,200-man Commonwealth observer force be reinforced by 5,000 or 10,000 additional troops...
...would confine the guerrillas to their scattered assembly camps and the Rhodesian security forces to their 42 relatively central military bases until an independent Zimbabwe government is formed after February's majority-rule elections. Monitoring the truce, under the supervision of British Governor Lord Soames, are 1,200 Commonwealth troops, drawn from Britain, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Kenya...
...ZANLA insurgents from Mozambique, he ordered Rhodesian troops into action along the country's eastern border. In another flagrant cease-fire violation, ten guerrillas attacked a white farm near the northwestern town of Sinoia, precipitating a clash with Rhodesian paramilitary police that left seven insurgents dead. The Commonwealth monitoring force suffered its first combat-related casualties when a Land-Rover detonated a mine, injuring a British soldier and a senior Patriotic Front field commander. The precarious truce was also marred by some 180 scattered incidents of banditry and lawlessness, from murder and kidnaping to armed robbery and cattle rustling...
Perhaps the most significant test of the cease-fire was taking place at the assembly camps where the returning guerrillas were making their first nervous contacts with Commonwealth monitors. At Alpha Camp near the northeastern border, arriving ZANLA soldiers tended to huddle by themselves, smiling and joking, sometimes almost conspiratorially, always skittishly. Some bunked down in the 30-man tents supplied by the U.S. Army. Most preferred to move out of the unfenced camp quietly at night, sleeping deep in the covered bush where they still felt more secure...