Too late for a settlement?
Richard West .
Salisbury The Wimpy Bar at Victoria Falls (15 per cent reduction for servicemen in uniform), has a sad slogan stuck on the cash register: `Go forth naked — and bring the tourists back to Rhodesia'. Had the tourists been dropping away then, I asked the manager, who replied: 'They're not coming this week, they didn't come last week, nor the week before that.' I scarcely needed to ask why. It followed the gutting by fire of the Elephant Hills Country Club which was hit by a rocket or other missile fired from Zambia over the river. 'It's all been got up by the overseas press,' the manager said. 'The Daily Mirror said that the whole place is flattened, that we're all living in terror and going around armed.' It did not seem worthwhile to point out that few Mirror readers normally fly to Rhodesia for a weekend, while the South African newspapers, far from spreading alarm and despondency, had Printed the dubious tale that the Zambians actually hit the Elephant Hills while aiming at an aeroplane. Those who know of Military matters incline to think that the Zambians, with their Czech advisors, hit the Elephant Hills, and could hit any other building, with missiles supplied by the British Aircraft Corporation, who also produce Concorde.
Most of the others on my 'Flame Lily' tour were Americans, who did not seem to be aware of peril, although some of them Were to be ambushed and shot up a few days later in Wankia Park, the local game (and maybe guerilla) reserve. The fact is that this north-western part of the country that holds most of the tourist attractions, is also most unsafe.
The Victoria Falls Hotel, although friendly and very well run, has more than its fair share of well-armed patrons, whether in uniform or civilian clothes. You can still walk on the bank of the Zambese without fear of a shot from the other side: you can Still walk the couple of miles to Elephant Hills (the bar and golf course have been re-opened) without fear of the locals you Meet. But the mood is uneasy and 'Flame Lily' reminded me of the visits to Hue and the 'Highway of Horror' that used to be run by the South Vietnamese tourist board, up to the end. The nervousness expresses itself in bad temper, which anyway affects Rhodesians in this sultry time of the year. In the Victoria Falls Hotel I actuallY saw two grown and serious men agree to 'step outside' to settle an argument with their fists. One of them was a customs official, the other an immigration man, I was told by a girl in their party. 'Rhodesians are like that', she added a little sadly. Later, the larger man returned alone, his face unbruised and his glasses unbroken, but I could not make out if he, the victor, was immigration or customs.
The hotel, which was built with the railway bridge in 1904, has always been rough, as I learned from The Autobiography of an Old Drifter by Percy M. Clark (published in 1936): 'The lessee was an Italian and the activities of his customers kept him scared almost out of his wits. He came into the dining room on one occasion when the top men in construction were having a social evening. The "wop" was immediately collared by the hilarious assembly, stuck up on the mantlepiece and ordered to sing a song. There was always a fight going on outside the bar — and the workmen certainly scrap.'
Again, to get an idea of how swiftly things change in Rhodesia, it is interesting to observe the black patrons of this hotel, who now mix well with the whites, and then to hear the 'Old Drifter', writing only forty years ago: 'I say that a dog and a native are on a par. One should give them a good hiding when they really have earned it, but one should never thrash either until one's temper has cooled.'
The Victoria Falls themselves, the most awesome and moving spectacle I have ever seen, are enough to remind even the dullest visitor that recent political troubles here are footling when seen against the age and immensity of the continent. The statue of Livingstone, which was unveiled in 1955, is a still further reminder of human vanity, for the plaque reads: 'On the occasion of the centenary of the discovery of the Victoria Falls, men and women of all races, in and from all parts of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasalanti, assembled solemnly to dedicate themselves and their country to the high Christian aims and ideals which inspired Livingstone.' Less than eight years after that plaque was erected, the federation was dissolved at a conference in the Victoria Falls Hotel, a federation that vanished as utterly and without trace as driftwood down the Zambesi. Those who had dedicated themselves to Livingstone's high ideals, are now fighting across the same river, and no peace appears likely in Central Africa, which Livingstone had described in his dying words as the 'open sore of the world.'
Last week's decision by Ian Smith to have an internal settlement, based on one man, one vote, was the right one and should have been taken fourteen years ago. The absurd and mischievious schemes of Britain and the United States to internationalise the problem and bring in outside guerrilla lead ers, and 'front line presidents' could not have worked and would have guaranteed civil war. What the guerrillas demand, in so many words, is that power should be given to them before an eleetion js held: i.e. that they could coerce the mass of black Rhodesians. They fear an early election because they know that this will almost certainly bring to power a leader like Bishop Muzorewa, whofearlsithe guerrillas and has the support of the blacks now serving in Smith's police and army. There is also the all-important fact that the majority tribe, the Shona people, fear and distrust their ancient foes, the Ndebele (of Matabele), who form the basis of power for Joshua Nkomo. A government led by Nkomo, always the wish of Great Britain, Zambia and the Lonrho Mining Company, would lead almost certainly either to civil war or secession.
The question remains: has Smith left it too late to obtain an internal settlement? Certainly it appears that his small, if able army, is fully stretched on all fronts and has just been engaged on a large-scale incursion into Mozambique. These operations, whether successful or not, would be at risk if Nkomo from the other end of the country unleashes the 5,000 or so fighters (and Matabeles are fearsome fighters) he is said to have had trai,ned up in Zambia. To make mutters worse for Smith, the rains are spreading all over the country, putting greenery on the dry forests and giving a natural hiding place to all the guerrillas. For example last week they were able to strike at Wankie Park, which had enjoyed heavy rains but could not operate at Victoria Falls where the dry scrub offered no shelter.
There was much talk early last week of a new problem facing Smith in the shape of an impending atrocity story. The story, as I understood it, was this: a young American photographer, Ross Baughman, obtained a freelance assignment to cover Rhodesia for the Associated Press. Through an American officer who had been in Vietnam, Baughman obtained permission to spend two weeks with the Grey's Scouts, a counterinsurgency group who ride horseback. This unit interrogated some captured suspects and during the course of the questioning, so it is said, Baughman photographed among other things, a woman held over a fire and a man thrown into water and then pulled out by a rope attached to the penis.
At the beginning of last week, foreign journalists in Rhodesia fully expected that AP were about to appal, the world with these photographs and this story. The Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation tried to pre-empt this attack by stating that any reports of atrocities would be immediately investigated. At least five Grey's Scouts have been questioned and may be charged. But as time went by and the AP offices in New York showed no sign of wishing to publish this story, the Rhodesian authorities grew confident and even aggressive, by asking, in effect, how Baughman got the pictures.
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