Reports from Rhodesia indicate that the Zimbabwe national liberation movement has launched a full-scale guerrilla attack on the Smith regime.

The armed struggle in Rhodesia began on April 28 seven years ago. For several years the fighting was limited to raids across the Zambesi river from Zambia, and more recently across the north-eastern border from Mozambique, but since December last year the joint military command of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) has spread throughout the country.

Simon Linney reported in the April 19 issue of the Nation Review that the guerrillas had attacked areas to the northwest, north, east and south of the capital Salisbury, and at least one sally right into the heart of the city.

Smith Hush Up Job

The Smith regime has been anxious to conceal the full extent of guerrilla operations. For example in February there was a bomb scare in a big department store in the heart of Salisbury. The local press tried to play down the incident but according to reliable sources, police found and defused a bomb big enough to level most of a city block. The bomb only failed to explode because of a fault in the detonator.

Linney wrote that the guerrilas had in recent months, "rudely confirmed their ability to move about inside Rhodesia with relative freedom... While the incidents themselves may be comparatively minor, it's the buildup of the impression that Rhodesia's main city is being surrounded that has tremendous psychological impact."

Furthermore the guerrillas have shown that they are able to scatter the smalt Rhodesian security forces all round the country.

There is also evidence that the Zimbabwe liberation fighter's strategy and tactics are better planned and co-ordinated than in the past. Writing in the New Statesman of May 18 Mary Holland noted that the guerrillas in the northeast had shown some discrimination in attacking white settlers. She commented that this policy showed a high degree of co-operation between the guerrillas and the local African population. "If you hit unpopular targets", she wrote, "it is because you have close links with local people and pay attention to their judgements".

A correspondent who had interviewed guerrilla fighters and leaders, reported in the Peking Review of May 11 that the liberation fighters placed great importance on mobilising the masses and relying on them. He quoted a junior guerrilla fighter who said: 'The enemy has burnt down our houses and taken away our land and cattle. I am joining the elders to fight the white settlers".

Informer Network

Mary Holland commented: "....every African to whom I spoke volunteered that the guerrillas now enjoy the almost total support of the people, passive in many cases at the moment, but active as soon as the need arises. In the townships, the signs are there for those who want to see. The informer network, essential for the white man to maintain a repressive regime in a country where he is outnumbered by more than 20—1, is at last in the process of disintegration."

Popular support for the guerrillas has been increased by the Smith regime's desperate attempts to smash the liberation movement. Rhodesian security' forces have resorted to punishing the local population in areas where guerrilla attacks have occurred. While such collective punishments have succeeded in identifying the guerrillas in some cases, the main effect has been to produce resentment and revenge.

"No Go"

The Smith regime's latest reaction to the increasing guerrilla operations has been to create "no go" areas in the northeast of the country. Apparently these areas could cover as much as one eighth of Rhodesia.

The idea of the "no go" areas is to clear tracts of land along the border with Zambia and Mozambique of all people. Anyone caught in a declared "no go" area will be shot on sight.

Commenting on this scheme in the Nation Review of May 25 Simon Linney wrote: "In military terms, it probably makes sense. But in practical terms it represents another blunder by Smith. The area in question is one of the most heavily African-populated in Rhodesia. It contains some of the most prosperous tribal trust lands and the best African purchase area land — where black owner-farmers have been making great progress in running their own properties. Africans displaced from their villages and properties in these circumstances aren't going to take their uprooting lightly".

Paranoid Whites in a Corner

The recent guerrilla actions have helped to push the white minority that rules Rhodesia further into a corner. The attempt at silencing the journalist Peter Niesewand was directly related to the guerrilla campaign because Niesewand's 'offence' was to publish a story of an attack on a railway line in Mozambique, which had been leaked from military sources within hours after the attack.

Details of Niesewand's secret trial, which were published by John Borrell in the Nation Review of April 19, revelaed the paranoia and stupidity of the Smith regime.

"When the Rhodesian Secretary for Law and Order, Mr Andrew Fleming, was called to give evidence, Niesewand's lawyer asked him whether the story Niesewand had filed contained classified information and was in fact a danger to the state.

"'Yes, yes,' Fleming flustered, 'Highly secret information which could endanger the security of our country if it got into the wrong hands'.

"'Well', said Niesewand's lawyer, 'what about this story?' He read a 300—400 word piece.

"'Yes, that's top secret too', replied Fleming.

"'That's strange Mr Fleming', said the lawyer. 'What I've just read was an extract from a speech made recently by the Prime Minister'".

The guerrilla operations are also hitting the Smith regime economically by scaring off tourists. Tourism is not only important for earning foreign exchange, but is also vital for maintaining contact with the outside world. Tourists see only Rhodesia's best face, go away again as (often unwittingly) promoters of the country. This has undeniably been a help to Smith over the years.

Vietnam Over Again

As the guerrilla war grows in Rhodesia parallels with the Vietnam war become more apparent every day. With every act of repression the Smith regime is recruiting support for the Zimbabwe liberation movement. As one guerrilla leader put it,"The revolutionary war is a war of the masses. Without the masses the guerrillas would be helpless, like fish out of water. No matter how arduous our struggle may be, so long as we rely on the broad masses and persist in chimurenga (war of liberation), we will win independence and liberate the motherland for certain. Final victory is certainty ours".