Word: rhodesia
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...Lake, close to the Zambian frontier, once seemed far removed from the cruel realities of the guerrilla conflict that has taken the lives of 12,000 black and white Rhodesians over the past six years. But last September, in one of the war's grislier episodes, an Air Rhodesia plane on a flight out of Kariba airport to Salisbury was shot down by guerrillas using a Soviet-made SAM7 heat-seeking missile. Ten of the 18 survivors were then murdered on the ground. Last week death again struck Kariba holidayers...
Winding up a pleasant weekend of fishing, sunbathing and gambling, 86 passengers, including some blacks, filed aboard two four-engine Air Rhodesia Viscount turboprops for the 40-minute return flight to Salisbury. Six minutes after takeoff, the pilot of the first Viscount radioed a Mayday signal; then Flight RH-827, his plane, hit by at least one ground-to-air missile, plunged nose-first into a rocky ravine. The crash killed all 59 people on board. The second Viscount, with Defense Chief Lieut. General Peter Walls and his wife aboard, took off 15 minutes later. It immediately began to execute...
Even the proposed name of the country under the new constitution reflects the continuing white influence. Until now, it has been assumed that, when Rhodesia passes to black rule, the country would become "Zimbabwe." But the present plan is that it will merely become "Zimbabwe-Rhodesia," a hyphenated abomination that angers Smith's black partners in the interim government and many of their supporters. A few cynics in Salisbury have suggested renaming the country Amnesia, after all the promises that have been forgotten along...
...gravest problem, however, is that Rhodesia is still wracked by guerrilla war, and there is no end in sight. Twelve thousand black and white Rhodesians have been killed in six years of fighting; of those, 500 died last month alone, making January the third worst month for casualties since the war began. Almost 90% of the country is under one form or another of martial law; most people travel by convoy, with or without military escort, and most are armed. The Patriotic Front, headed by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, has 12,000 guerrillas inside Rhodesia and thousands more...
Smith's hope is that the elections in Rhodesia may persuade the U.S., Britain and other Western governments to take the lead in ending the 13-year U.N. economic sanctions against his country. Once a new black government is accepted as legitimate by other nations, it might then be able to gain some military support, if only from South Africa and a few others, in fending off the guerrillas. A likelier prospect is that the guerrilla war will turn into a broader civil war as the various black factions, separated by tribal, personality and ideological divisions, battle each other...