ZIMBABWE: MEMORIAL TO THE TWELVE WHITE MISSIONARIES AND CHILDREN KILLED IN AN ATTACK DURING THE BUSH WAR IN 1978.

Record ID: 862555

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: MEMORIAL TO THE TWELVE WHITE MISSIONARIES AND CHILDREN KILLED IN AN ATTACK DURING THE BUSH WAR IN 1978.
  • Date: 17th July 1981
  • Summary: ELIM MISSION, ZIMBABWE 14 JULY, 1981 (REUTERS - CHRIS EVERSON) GV PAN Mission. (3 SHOTS) 1.17 CU Smashed glass, damaged roof. (3 SHOTS) 1.32 GV PAN FROM Trees TO mission. 1.42 GV Countryside, TD plaque. 1.50 Initials JS NOTE TO EDITORS: THIS FILM CONTAINS EXPLICIT SCENES OF THE VICTIMS, AND SHOULD BE VIEWED BEFORE USE. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st August 1981 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
  • City:
  • Country: Afghanistan Zimbabwe
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAAB5TNCU5M9VO9OK0AF9EI0HNW
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: INTRODUCTION: In 1978, the Elim Mission Station in the Vumba Mountains in a remote area of what was then called Rhodesia was the scene of the brutal killings of twelve missionaries and children. The twelve whites who died included a three-week-old baby.

    SYNOPSIS: Today the mission station is a peaceful place, with few reminders other than these graves of the brutal killings which shocked the world community, just over three years ago. The massacre near Umtali elicited strong responses, both domestic and in Britain.

    At the time, the then British Foreign Secretary, Doctor David Owen, said the attack was a horrific reminder of the need to end the war, and the dispute that followed the Unilateral Declaration of Independence well over a decade before. This was the scene at the Elim Mission after the attack in June 1978. The massacre took place without firearms. The victims were stabbed, bayonetted and bludgeoned to death.

    Some bodies were half-stripped, while others were mutilated. The massacre took place on the mission's cricket field. The staff and their children died while the 250 black pupils were distracted at a meeting elsewhere. None of the blacks living on the station was harmed. White MP's in the Rhodesian Parliament blamed Patriotic Front forces, but responsibility for the attack has been disputed.

    The Patriotic Front's leader, Mr. Mugabe, now Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, then denied the claim that his forces were responsible. He said the missionaries were killed by others, to divert attention from Rhodesian security force activities.

    Now the Mission Station, in the lush Vumba Mountains, recalls the past, and the violent events of the bush war that preceded the British-backed settlement and birth of the state of Zimbabwe in 1980.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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