THIS DAY IN HISTORY|The deaths of a Patriotic Front army commander and of three British airmen today complicated Britain’s settlement initiative in Rhodesia as troops from the Commonwealth monitoring force prepared to observe the cease‐fire scheduled to take effect at midnight tomorrow.
The commander, Gen. Josiah Tongogara, who led the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the wing of the Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance headed by Robert Mugabe, was said by the Mozambican Government to have died in an automobile accident early yesterday.
Related Posts:
- Tongogara didn’t kill Chitepo |The memoirs of a commander
- General Josiah Tongogara’s diaries found nearly four decades after his death
- The Angeline Tongogara story, how Zanu-PF cowers victims of its violence and political intransigence
- DEATH OF GENERAL REX NHONGO| Joice Mujuru Fingers President Mugabe
- 19 October 1977 Tekere, Mugabe and Tongogara at press conference(Video)
His death came against the background of a potentially ominous warning by Mr. Mugabe that his guerrillas would not meet the cease‐fire deadline unless Britain accounted for the reported presence of South African troops in Rhodesia.
According to a statement issued by the Mozambican Cabinet in Maputo, General Tongogara died when a car in which he was traveling crashed into a truck at Massinga on the Indian Ocean coast 385 miles north of Maputo. The general was traveling from Maputo to his headquarters at Chimoio, 50 miles east of the Rhodesian border city of Umtali, to supervise the cease‐fire duties assigned to his men.
Force Put at 11.000
Military sources in Salisbury have estimated
the strength of the Mugabe wing’s army inside Rhodesia at more than 11,000 men. The rest of the total of 17,000 insurgents believed to be operating inside the country are under the banner of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, the wing of the Patriotic Front headed by Joshua Nkomo.
Privately, British officials in Salisbury reacted with dismay to the news of the general’s death, which reached Government House, the seat of British authority, as General Tongogara’s deputy, Gen. Rex Nhongo, was being briefed on the cease‐fire operation by the commander of the Commonwealth monitoring force, Maj. Gen. John Acland of Britain. General Nhongo arrived in Salisbury yesterday at the head of a team of the Mugabe force’s liaison officers who are to work with the monitoring units.
Sources who knew General Tongogara during the three‐month conference in London that led to the cease‐fire agree11 ment said he was a key figure in both the military and political affairs of Mr. Mugabe’s party. “He will be greatly missed, but this does not of course affect the cease‐fire program,” an official said, reflecting official hopes rather than official fears.
Alarm and Suspicion
Political supporters of Mr. Mugabe in Salisbury reacted to the news with a mixture of alarm and suspiction.
“Nobody’s going to tell me that he wasn’t bumped off,” said a black executive.
Officials of Mr. Mugabe’s political wing, the Zimbabwe African National Union, forecast that many guerrillas would believe that General Tongogara had been assassinated and would be reluctant to report to the assembly points as required by the cease‐fire accord.
The British contingent of the 1,300‐man monitoring force meanwhile suffered its first losses when three Royal Air Force men died in a helicopter crash near Mtoko, 50 miles northeast of Salisbury.
The Puma helicopter struck a telegraph pole while on a flight carrying water supply equipment to one of the 16 assembly areas designated for the Patriotic Front forces under the cease‐fire agreement. Official British spokesmen said that a preliminary investigation had concluded that the crash was an accident.
C‐130 Comes Under Fire
A Royal Air Force C‐130 Hercules came under fire while ferrying men of the monitor force from Salisbury to Umtali. The attack occurred in an area heavily infiltrated by guerrillas near St. Teresa’s mission, 70 miles southeast of Salisbury. According to a British spokesman, one bullet hit the white cross painted on the nose of the Hercules to identify it as engaged in monitoring operations.
Britain’s activities were fiercely criticized by Mr. Mugabe in a cease‐fire message being broadcast hourly to his troops from Mozambican radio transmitters. In the broadcast, he threatened that his forces would not meet the cease‐fire deadline unless Britain accounted for the alleged presence of South African troops in Rhodesia.
“What are they there to do?” he asked. “This is the question that Britain and the Governor must answer before they can expect us to move to the rendezvous points and the assembly places.”
Saying that Britain had promised to assure a South African withdrawal as part of the cease‐fire agreement, Mr. Mugabe said: “If they remain in the contry we will reconsider our position.”
Mr. Mugabe told his men to hold on to their weapons and to ignore any orders they might be given by the monitoring troops.
The teams responsible for observing the Rhodesian security forces were all in their positions by yesterday.-Newyorktimes
*originally published december 28 ,1979 .