The 1979 Rhodesian Viscount shooting's place in history

By now it should have become obvious to any discerning mind that many Westerners who are said to be 'concerned' about the Zimbabwean crisis are in reality pursuing a racial and therefore selfish agenda. To forestall charges of racialism, these westerners have, so far, deployed black statistics and multi-racial casualties ahead of their own selfish grievances. These sorry realities have endured thanks to a culture of blackmail which has seen many otherwise critically minded people being bullied into silence.

Vauxhall MP and London chatter box, Kate Hoey's recent proposal for the commemoration of the so called 1979 'viscount atrocities' during which ZIPRA fighters gunned down Air Rhodesia Viscount Flight RH827 fits into this category.

Hoey who, for over a decade now, has been at the forefront of the campaign to censure Mugabe and has, for much of that period, been hobnobbing with Zimbabwe asylum seekers and refugees, may have been so imbued with her sense of invincibility all because of her record as a servant of freedom that she took it for granted that her racial proposal would not been be ridiculed for what it is.

No wonder why when confronted with outrage she blamed Zanu-PF propaganda for all her troubles. And yet in reality the incident has stirred indignation even amongst the whites particularly within the Zimbabwe Britain Society. Moreover, James Timba, a Zanu-PF zealot turned MDC member, is also said to have personally telephoned Hoey to register his displeasure with Hoey's initiative-a development which pours scorn on Hoey's allegations.

That six or even more of her colleagues have sided with Hoey serves to confirm what many will wrongly want to term conspiracy theories. One such theory is that some Westerners were so incensed with the shooting of the Viscount in 1979 that, from henceforth, they resolved never to forgive Joshua Nkomo and his PF ZAPU.

It is, so goes the theory, one of the reasons why despite Mugabe's evident obduracy and malevolence London, with a little pestering from Julius Nyerere-at least by Lord Carrington's own admission, opted for Zanu-PF during the Lancaster House talks. Only last week former ZIPRA supremo, Dumiso Dabengwa, told the Bulawayo Press Club that the 1980 elections were rigged on behalf of Mugabe. In his auto-biography, Nkomo states that, after the election, ballot boxes were sealed and flown to the UK to be burned lending credence to the theory that the election was indeed rigged. The customarily inquisitive British press has, curiously, never pursued that damaging development.

As reciprocation for being propelled to power, Mugabe naturally obliged with his pseudo-reconciliation policy. This was, as Dabengwa said this week, at the suggestion of the British who were keen on having Smith and his ilk spared any revenge.

Overnight Mugabe, a proud bigot, was showered with praises for his so called reconciliation policy which, as we all now know, was nothing but a strategic retreat. With Mugabe in their pockets, the West went ahead with their revenge mission for the Viscount shooting. The whole grudge game was calculated to ride on the Shona-Ndebele rivalry and, with ready bigots like Menard Muzariri and Emerson Mnangagwa within the Mugabe camp, the whole thing worked wonders for the revenge strategy.

As atonement for the Viscount, whole groups of people were pulverised.  That almost virtually all of the accused were routinely acquitted by the courts on allegations of insurrection bears testimony to the theory that everything was nothing but planned genocide against innocent people

Mugabe was not just funded but was shielded from censure as he waged his genocide against the people of Matabeleland and ZIPRA cadres. More than that, a calculated veil of silence was cultivated around the killing. Consequently, many senior and important British citizens, who included Prince Charles, literally took it upon themselves to shield Mugabe from censure. No to be outdone, Commercial Farmers Union's Jimmy Sinclair, came out on BBC's Panorama Programme saying Mugabe's government was 'justified in doing what it is doing in Matabeleland'.

To see that the Matabeleland Genocide had a grudge element to it the old Rhodesian soldiers and Central Intelligence Organisation members of British and South African descent, equipped and oiled Mugabe's killing machine. Talk of Kevin Woods, Stanard, Ken Flower and many others who, today, are part of the international anti-Mugabe lobby.

Such was the payback craziness for the viscount shooting, which, as Hoey's initiative shows, the West will never forget. So enmeshed into their psyche is the viscount shooting that it must matter more than the genocide acknowledged by the Genocide Watch, only as recent as three years back.

It is interesting that Hoey and her colleagues have yet to propose the commemoration of the genocide; and it will be interesting to know what action they took during the genocide. The reality is that most of them, try as they may to appear to be pro-Zimbabwe, they are essentially for a white cause.

Now what does this mean, one might ask? To ensure the African people's navigability, the West will routinely promote and sponsor reconciliation and amnesty projects. The primary purpose of this is to brow beat anybody who may be inclined towards revenge or compensation in an atrocity where white people would be involved. In the process the West themselves will go ahead with their own revenge missions. So, while Africans are awarded Peace Prizes for ensuring true peace and for strongly condemning violence by fellow citizens Westerns like Henry Kissinger and Barrack Obama are showered with the peace awards for literally waging war. In the long run bitterness and revenge becomes a preserve for the Western elite while the Desmond Tutus of this world must be doves all the way to the point of being stooges. Any African who wants to commemorate any atrocity such as the Gugulethu Seven shooting in South Africa will be labelled as a dinosaur afflicted by post-colonial resentment.

Hoey's initiative has also elicited hullabaloo from curious ends. Isn't it striking that Zanu-PF people, Gukurahundists included, are now incensed by Hoey's idea? Here are the people who have spent ages denying ZIPRA's role in the liberation struggle riding on an incident on which their genocide rode!

There can only be one reason for Zanu-PF's false solidarity with the ZIPRA people. The Gukurahundists fear that their own somewhat questionable liberation war credentials will naturally be exposed if it appears to be only the activities of Nkomo's ZIPRA forces that the West remembers most. The age old lie about Mugabe and his ilk being super heroes who shook the Rhodesians to the core until the British handed the country to them is now plain for all to see. Instead, it was all about navigability and selling out on behalf of the then Maputo based crew. That is why Mugabe who during the Lancaster House negotiations, was not strong enough on the land issue, is today masquerading as a champion of land reform.

Talk of snowmen.

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Zuze can be contacted on mkwatizuze@yahoo.com

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