ZIMBABWE: TEARS OF JOY GREET 35 ZIMBABWEAN SOLDIERS RETURNING HOME FROM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AFTER 19 MONTHS AS PRISONERS OF WAR
Record ID:
647625
ZIMBABWE: TEARS OF JOY GREET 35 ZIMBABWEAN SOLDIERS RETURNING HOME FROM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AFTER 19 MONTHS AS PRISONERS OF WAR
- Title: ZIMBABWE: TEARS OF JOY GREET 35 ZIMBABWEAN SOLDIERS RETURNING HOME FROM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AFTER 19 MONTHS AS PRISONERS OF WAR
- Date: 17th June 2000
- Summary: HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JUNE 17 2000) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF POWs GETTING OFF PLANE 0.10 2. SLV POWs BEING HUGGED BY MILITARY OFFICERS 0.14 3. SLV/SV WOMAN PINNING CARNATION ON RETURNING POW (3 SHOTS) 0.33 4. MV POWs GETTING OFF PLANE 0.45 5. VARIOUS MORE OF POWs BEING EMBRACED BY THEIR COLLEAGUES/ PILOT/ POW'S HAVING CARNATION PINNED TO THEM/BEING GREETED (4 SHOTS) 1.15 6. SV (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) LIEUTENANT GENERAL CONSTANTINE CHIWENGA OF THE ZIMBABWE ARMY SAYING: "Here we've released the 43 Rwandese which we had in Zimbabwe plus the 92 who were with the force headquarters in Kinshasa. All these Rwandese have returned back to Rwanda and in turn we've received 35 Zimbabwean Defense Force members who had been captured in the various contact places in the DRC." 1.49 7. MV POWs ARRIVING AT MILITARY BASE TO MEET FAMILIES 2.04 8. VARIOUS OF REACTIONS FROM FAMILY MEMBERS AS THEY MEET WITH POWs 2.25 9. SLV POW'S LEAVING BUS BEING GREETED BY FAMILY 2.58 10. SV/SLV SOLDIERS LOOKING ON AS POWs AND FAMILIES EMBRACE (3 SHOTS) 3.27 11. MV TWO LONE POWs WALKING IN WITHOUT FAMILY TO GREET THEM (2 SHOTS) 3.39 12. VARIOUS MORE OF POWs BEING MOBBED BY FAMILY MEMBERS. 4.06 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 2nd July 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HARARE, ZIMBABWE
- Country: Zimbabwe
- Reuters ID: LVA73XP4F2IM94ICNZO8I99QKV7L
- Story Text: Tears and shrieks of joy have greeted 35 Zimbabwean
soldiers who returned home from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo after up to 19 months as prisoners of war.
The tired but healthy looking soldiers stepped off a
bus on Saturday (June 17) at an army base near Harare and into
the arms of weeping relatives.
"My child, my child!," yelled one woman after rushing to
embrace her young son through a corridor of army officers and
television cameras. Overcome with emotion, she collapsed on
the floor and was carried away by several army nurses.
Another elderly mother sang a praise song and danced while
her son hugged his father for several minutes.
"You fought my son, hero among heroes. You fought and you
killed soldiers in the DRC," the woman shouted in the local
Shona language.
As an army officer called out the name of each POW on
Saturday night (June 17), a few soldiers had no family there
to welcome them. One captain with no relatives to greet him
was hugged by a fellow officer.
The 35 Zimbabweans were among 177 prisoners of war freed
on Friday and Saturday under an agreement between the warring
countries in the Congo's 22-month-old war.
Army officers kept reporters at bay to allow the families
time to reunite with their brothers, sons and fathers.
Zimbabwe on Saturday released 43 Rwandan soldiers
imprisoned near Harare for 18 months after being captured in
the Congo.
Another 88 Rwandans and 11 Namibian soldiers were also
repatriated in the past two days in an operation organised by
the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Zimbabweans arrived from the Congo capital Kinshasa
and were given a hero's welcome after their plane touched down
at Harare airport.
Clad in track suits and carrying plastic bags with a few
belongings, each man had a flower pinned to his chest and was
embraced by Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga who led a
delegation of senior army officers. Some of the soldiers wept
uncontrollably.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola sent troops to the Congo in
1998 to defend President Laurent Kabila against rebels backed
by Rwanda and Uganda.
"We went into the Congo to stop the war and to stop the
genocide that was likely to happen when the rebels and the
Rwandans and Ugandans were approaching Kinshasa," Chiwenga
told reporters at the airport.
"We are very proud...for having stopped that catastrophe."
Zimbabwe has more than 10,000 troops, or a third of its
army, in the Congo and hopes to bring them home after the
United Nations deploys peacekeepers in the vast African
country.
The war has been unpopular in Zimbabwe and a severe drain
on President Robert Mugabe's cash-strapped government which is
facing crucial parliamentary elections in seven days.
The U.N. mission has been threatened by six days of heavy
fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan forces for control of the
diamond city of Kisangani, which killed 150 civilians and
violated a 1999 peace agreement.
Amid the prisoner exchanges, there was concern in Kinshasa
over the fate of Congolese prisoners held by Rwanda.
The Rwandans freed by Zimbabwe had flown out of Harare
earlier on Saturday. They had been imprisoned at an army base
near Harare and were not allowed to speak to reporters when
they arrived at the capital's airport.
pj/
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