Word: machell
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...seemed too much of a coincidence. On Oct. 6, six South African soldiers were injured by a land mine near the spot where the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland converge. General Magnus Malan, South Africa's Defense Minister, quickly issued a stern message to Mozambican President Samora Machel. "Terror feeds on itself," said Malan. "It eventually turns on its hosts." Just ten days after that menacing admonition, a plane carrying Machel, 53, strayed over the South African border near the site of the land-mine explosion and crashed, killing the President and 33 others...
Anti-South African activists around the world were quick to accuse Pretoria. In Johannesburg police fired tear gas into a crowd of 250 students, most of them black, who blamed their government for Machel's death. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda broke into tears when he heard the news and declared, "I accuse the South Africans openly of involvement until they are proved innocent." In Zimbabwe, thousands of youths stormed through downtown Harare, attacking whites on the streets, smashing windows and besieging South African, Malawian and U.S. offices. The worst damage was at the South African Airways ticket center, whose staff...
...fact, there was little evidence of any South African involvement in the crash. The accident occurred as Machel was returning from a Zambian summit meeting of so-called frontline black African states located near South Africa. Machel's official plane, a Soviet-made Tupolev 134-B, took off with 44 people aboard, including a Soviet crew of five. It refueled in Lusaka, then flew across Zimbabwe and headed south toward the Mozambique capital of Maputo. Violent thunderstorms were hitting the area, and visibility was poor. Near the South African town of Komatipoort, the Soviet pilot announced he had Maputo airport...
Amazingly, ten aboard the plane survived, including the Soviet pilot, Vladimir Novoselov, who was taken to a South African hospital with a broken thigh and a concussion. According to initial reports, Novoselov claimed the plane was shot down, and another survivor, Machel Bodyguard Fernando Joao, said, "We heard a shot or a bang from within the plane. The plane vibrated, and then we crashed." The official Mozambique daily Noticias speculated that electronic interference by South Africa might have led the pilot off course...
South African officials, however, call claims of sabotage absurd, and permitted Mozambican officials across the border immediately to examine the wreckage and remove Machel's body. Mozambicans, international civil aviation experts and Soviet experts will all take part in an investigation of the crash by the South African Department of Civil Aviation...