Mutsvangwa, Muchinguri relive Nyadzonya, Chimoio tragedies

19 Apr, 2015 - 00:04 0 Views
Mutsvangwa, Muchinguri relive Nyadzonya, Chimoio tragedies

The Sunday News

mutsvangwa, muchinguriTHE day was Monday 9 August 1976, a column of 10 Unimogs, four Ferret scout cars, and 84 officers and men of the Selous Scouts, under the command of Captain Rob Warraker, were deployed to Mozambique to massacre hundreds of refugees at Nyadzonya just north of the then Umtali.
Ian Smith’s men lied that they had discovered a Zanla logistics camp near Nyadzonya River, a tributary of the Pungwe, housing an estimated 5 000 refugees.

General Peter Walls then unleashed his troops against unarmed refugees.
Bombs were detonated jet fighters pumping bullets on the ground to ensure there was no survivor while other soldiers set fire to thatched buildings and shelters found in the camp.

Some refugees drowned trying to swim across the Nyadzonya River.
“It was horrifying and terrible. I was 14 and had just arrived at Nyadzonya camp after spending over 24 hours walking from Inyanga.

Things happened so fast I saw headless refugees running blood flowing; this was a bad experience for a little girl.
“There were a lot of dead bodies on the ground. I had not undergone any military training so I did not know how to take cover or protect myself in situations like that.

“I just followed the crowd to a nearby Nyadzonya River and to make matters worse I could not even swim but I was fortunate because I found a Frelimo Comrade Kasablanga who helped me and other young girls to swim across the river, unfortunately some drowned while trying to swim,” narrated Cde Monica “Chido Chimurenga” Mutsvangwa, who was among the survivors of the Nyadzonya bombing.

Close to 1 000 refugees perished.
After the attack the troops conducted pre-arranged sweeps through the camp, accounting for any survivors.
“We walked three days non-stop to the nearest camp which was Zhunda. I then underwent military training in 1977 under Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and others at Chimoio camp,” she said.

Cde Mutsvangwa said the Nyadzonya massacre was still a festering wound and remained indelibly stamped in her memory.

She had another horrifying experience on 23 November 1977 when the Ian Smith’s Rhodesian forces launched an attack on 14 guerrilla and refugee camps, killing 5 000. She was based at the camp when there was a mass murder of innocent refugees at Chimoio by the Rhodesian forces on that fateful day when the world woke up to the shock news of the atrocity we now know as the Chimoio Massacre.

Another female cadre, Cde Oppah Muchinguri was among the survivors of this heinous act.
“I was a member of the General Staff where I worked as Secretary of the High Command. We had several bases at Chimoio — farming, medicine, commissariat etc — and Chimoio was the headquarters. We saw planes, about 10 initially, flying towards the camp. We did not suspect anything as we thought they were Mozambican. We had been attacked before at Nyadzonia . . . The planes started dropping bombs and parachutes.

“Rhodesian ground forces had already been dropped and had us surrounded, so the planes were targeting their bombs at our camp. As the bombs fell those who tried to escape faced helicopters which were targeting the outskirts of the camp.

“When the bombing was over, the Rhodesians rummaged through our things, food, clothing etc. Those who survived and returned to the camp discovered that there was no food; if they found it, it was poisoned. We lost a good number of survivors to food poisoning. Some, who could not flee as a result of severe injuries, were killed by the enemy.

“As secretary I was responsible for the safekeeping of all party and war documents so I dug a hole and buried them in the ground.

The liberation war was real. People sacrificed themselves to bring independence. People suffered to set Zimbabwe free,” said Cde Muchinguri in one of her interviews.

Female soldiers got the worst of this grim situation but they soldiered on to ensure that they brought the people into a free Zimbabwe.

It is these atrocities that bind many freedom fighters together and make them vehemently resist the imperialist-promulgated regime change agenda in the country.

It is these horrifying memories that have seen the revolutionary party Zanu-PF standing tall and fighting for economic independence to ensure absolute freedom.

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