Word: nkomo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...having fought, let us now say: 'It is all over.' " Those conciliatory words were spoken by Joshua Nkomo after he emerged from a green and white Zambia Airways jet onto the tarmac of Salisbury airport. The bulky, silver-haired black nationalist leader had returned to Rhodesia, after more than three years of exile, to begin campaigning for next month's independence elections. Because of a flurry of death threats, security at the airport was extremely heavy: grim reminders of lingering white bitterness over Nkomo's role in Rhodesia's bloody seven-year guerrilla...
...Nkomo's dramatic return came at a time of mounting concern over the stability of the month-old ceasefire. Though more than 21,000 guerrilla troops have gathered peacefully at 16 remote assembly camps, several thousand others remain at large in the bush. There have been at least 38 confirmed cease-fire violations and 158 deaths since the agreement took effect on Dec. 21. British officials say Nkomo's ZIPRA forces appear to be honoring the truce far more scrupulously than the more numerous ZANLA troops loyal to Robert Mugabe, Nkomo's co-leader...
...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...
...Zimbabwe Rhodesia ultimately hinges on the outcome of the elections. Voting separately, whites will fill 20 seats and blacks 80 seats in the new 100-member House of Assembly. Though no fewer than ten black parties are in the running, the real contest boils down to three men: Nkomo, Mugabe and former Prime Minister Bishop Abel Muzorewa...
...case, risks and casualties have been high on the guerrilla side as well, he says, and Masuku has had his share of personal tragedy. During the daring Rhodesian army raid last April that destroyed Nkomo's home and party offices in Lusaka, the capital of neighboring Zambia, the general and his family were fired on from a roadside ambush as they dashed for safety in their car. The little finger of Masuku's left hand was blown off, but typically it was the innocent who suffered most: his wife and three-year-old son are still hospitalized...