RHODESIA: RHODESIAN SECURITY FORCES ROUT BIG BAND OF GUERRILLAS WITH AIR AND GROUND ATTACKS.

Record ID: 566006

  • Title: RHODESIA: RHODESIAN SECURITY FORCES ROUT BIG BAND OF GUERRILLAS WITH AIR AND GROUND ATTACKS.
  • Date: 2nd December 1976
  • Summary: 1. SV PAN Journalists TO captured weapons beside bodes of dead guerrillas 0.11 2. SV AND CU Dead guerrillas (3 shots) 0.29 3. SV PAN AND CU FROM Dead guerrillas TO captured guerrillas (2 shots) 0.38 4. ??? dies ??? PAN guerrillas 0.51 5. CU Major in ???ge of ???tion 1.55 SMITH: "Has the incidence of guerrillas crossing the border increased since the Geneva Conference?" BARRETT: "Yes, I'd say very much so." SMITH: "What would you say were the implications of that. Why do you think they've been doing that?" BARRETT: "Well it's a little bit difficult to assess completely at the moment because we have picked up documents which reject the talks sort of outright, not quite saying that but that power will come out of the barrel of a gun in Rhodesia and not through talking and seeming to reject the talks outright. But by the same token I think they're probably trying to bring pressure on the Prime Minister's government and trying to increase the scale of the war and the intensity of it." SMITH: "Do you think their action weakens the Rhodesian forces to such an extent that the politicians are weakened at Geneva?" BARRETT: "No I don't think this will happen because we are having regular success at the moment and I think that the recent figures involved in the incursions and the number of terrorists that are being killed I think proves that categorically." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th December 1976 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RUSAPE, RHODESIA
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVA22SK5FRQH0DHSB0C4S8U5JLG4
  • Story Text: Rhodesian forces have been pursuing a large band of guerrillas said to number between 80 and 100 who were alleged to have crossed into Rhodesia from Mozambique in mid-November. Since then 38 have been killed.

    SYNOPSIS: At Rusape, in Rhodesia, reporters were invited to view the efforts of Rhodesian Security Forces on Monday (29 November) when 13 African guerrillas were killed. Seventeen bodies as well as captured arms were on show at a police camp at Rusape. In the increasing guerrilla warfare occurring about Rhodesia's borders, the death toll meant that 245 guerrillas had been killed in November, by far the largest number in the last four years. Some ???he guerrillas had been captus???alive, one of whom said he'd been forced into being a guerrilla.

    Some of the bodies of the guerrillas had been hideously burned. B.B.C's Ian Smith asked Major Garth Barrett about the effect of the constitutional talks in Geneva.
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