On 28 March the Zambian Home Affairs Minister, announced the arrest of'a number of Rhodesian nationalist leaders-mostly belonging to the Zimbabwe African National Union. They were said to have been rounded nection with the murder the previous week of former ZANU chairman, Herbert Chitepo.
The arrests took place at 7pm 23 March when ZANU members were still mourning Chitepo at his bouse in Lusaka. The Minister, Aaron Miner, refused to give the number arrested, but witnesses said that anned police stormed into the house and ordered at least 70 men* into trucks. Some of the arrested men had come from the niral areas and from overseas to attend the tuneral.
At the same time Milner announced the closure of the offices of ZANU, ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peopic's Union) and FROLIZI (Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe) in Lesaka. Only the ANC (African National Council) would be allowed to continue operations in Zambia. The reg istration of the other three groups (necessary by Zambian law for any organisation) would he cancelled until the nationalists honour the Lusaka accord which brought them under the umbrella of ANC GRAVE EFFECTS The possibly grave effects of this action for the armed wing of ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), were underlimed in Salisbury by Robert Mugabe, ZANU Secrefary General. If the detained men were all elfective members in the miltary wing then it would provide big problems for maintaining the supply lines to the freedom fighters in the field.
However Mugabe stressed that they would certainly carry on on the strength of their own supplies and what they could manage to bring in on their own'. Underlining ZANU's determination to continue the campaign of armed struggle, he said: 'l1 would not mean that the war had come to an end'.
Milner, referring to the murder of Chitepo, said: 'One cannot say it wasn't Smith's agents, One cannot say it wasn't ZANU. This disgusting betrayal of the Zimbabwe revolution effectively places the militants of ZANU alongside the racist Smith regime, instead of exposing the fact that the murder of Chitepo was clearly directed by the latter.
The purpose of this campuign is to smash up the wing of the movement which has most consistently argued and foughi for the principle of imme diate majority rule. If this can be done then perhaps a deal can be reach- posed to bave undertaken to release ed with other sections of the movesistently to immediate majority rile, and none of whom have the effective puerilla force in the field possessed by ZANU.
'DETENTE' STRATEGY
This action to cripple ZANU is a the Zambian Governmeat of Presidens Kaunda has been pursuing for the past six months in its attempts to reach further detente" with South Africa. A to make sure concessions to the settlement of the Riodesia question has been the lynch pin of this effort, Without this it would be quite Recent events in Rhodesia amount to a big crisis for the much-vaunted "detente' in Southern Africa. The efforts of the white racist Rhodesian Government to frame the leader of the militant ZANU wing of the rationa list movement, on a charge of conspiring to murder his more 'moderate" colleagues, have blown up in their face. They have shamefacedly had to drop these absurd allegations, and lock up the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole on up and detained for questioning in con the straightforward charge that he was opposed to selling-out the interests of the black majority of Zimbabwe (the nationalists" name for their countryl.
But it is not the racists alone who want to smash the militants in the hope that 'moderate' elements in the African National Council (ANC -the 'unification" of all the different nationalist groups engineered by the white racists and leaders of the black African states last year| can be bullied and cajoled into going along with a sell-out. This is also the tactic of several major black African Governments in the area, who hope to make up for their own inability to break with imperialism and world capitalism by fostering close economic ties with the white racists of Rhodesia and South Africa.
Several weeks ago the self-proclaimed 'socialist' Government of Tanzania shut down ZANU offices in their capital city, and they have now been joined by the Zambian Government. In this article JOHN BLAIR, writing from Zambia, discusses the repressive moves being taken in that country against the Zimbabwe militants, and warns of the dangers for the fight against imperialism in southern Africa.
At a press conference on 28 March, Racist justice in Rhodeian court-major obstacie to normalisation of South Africa's impossibie to maintain the illusion that Zammia stands in the forefront of the struggle against the racist To this end talks between Smith and the heration morements were set up in Zambia in December. Here a commitment was supposedly made hy Rhodesian representatives to the bolding of a consritutional conference before the end of March. to lay out the steps towards majority rule. The Rhodesian Governreent was also supthe 400-oid political detainees curment, none of whom have adhered con-rently in his prisons Of course nolhing bar the release of about 60 delainees.
In this situation it was fast becom ing ciear that the militants of LANG bad been correct when they said that the "detente" moves were simply a cover for the indefinite continuation logical part of the whole strategy which of white rule. By making this frontal attack on ZANU, Kaunda hopes to persuade Smith that Zambia is carrying oul its side of the deal. In this way Smith can perhaps be persuaded "moderate (read "sell-out) sections of ANC. This will then be sold to the world as a victory for "decente In the face of these manoeuvres by one of the smoothest of Africa s neo-colonial operators, the task of the revolutionacy movement world-wide is to demand:
1. Immediate release of all the detained ZANU militants in Zambia;
2. Increased support for the ZANU fighters;
3. A complete end to any con tacts and negotiations by any Afr Ican state with the racist regimes of the south:
4. Recognition that the only authority to negotiate the future of Zimbabwe rests withthe peo ple of Zimbabwe themselves.
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