Former army officer reveals the truth about abduction of tourists in Matabeleland

In 1982, 10 Western tourists were abducted by a group of 12 gunmen along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road.Four of the hostages were released with a ransom note to the police. In the ransom, the kidnappers demanded the release of Zipra army commander, Lookout Masuku, intelligence chief, Dumiso Dabengwa and others who included Tshaka Moyo, Swazini Ndlovu and Misheck Velaphi.

The commanders had been detained following the discovery of arms caches on properties owned by Zapu and its combat wing during the liberation war, Zipra in Matabeleland province. The government did not waste time blaming Zapu for the kidnapping of the tourists without providing evidence.

Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo counter-attacked and told the foreign media that the whole kidnapping of the tourists had been stage managed by the government to discredit his party and members of its combat wing during the liberation war, Zipra.

The government then deployed 2000 troops and police para-military units backed by helicopter gunships and armoured cars.Spotter planes provided air support-turning the entire Lupane district into a de-facto war zone.

The remaining six tourists, two Americans and Britons were later killed by their captors and buried in a shallow grave in Gomoza area in Lupane. The kidnapping of the tourists left many people with unanswered questions-Who were the kidnappers and what was the motive?

A few days after the abduction, some villagers travelled to Bulawayo to meet Nkomo at his Phelandaba residence. The villagers allegedly told the Zapu leader that they had seen the tourists in the company of gunmen. Some even told Nkomo that they gave the gunmen food because they were forced to do so.

Two other Gomoza villagers who went to the police camp to report seeing suspicious gunmen in the company of white people later disappeared without trace.It was later discovered that one of the villagers had given the police the name of one of the gunmen he recognized when they passed through their area with the hostages.

But this week, a former army colonel who was part of the operation to rescue the abducted tourists came forward to reveal the truth about why the hostages were never found alive and why the government did not have the will to find them in the first place.

His disclosures will certainly ruffle feathers in the corridors of power.He exposses the lies,deceit and the government's dirty campaign to discredit Zapu and Zipra during the search for the tourists.The lethal anti-Zapu venom coming from Zanu leaders fuelled the international community's anger towards Zapu and its supporters in Matabeleland.

It did not come as a surprise when the following year the West, led by Britain and America abandoned the inhabitants of the region when they were at the mercy of the Fifth Brigade. I first met the former army officer in Bulawayo in 2004 while he was working as a security consultant for the MDC.

That year he refused to talk about the operation to rescue the tourists fearing for his own safety since he was still inside the country. But this time we met at a neutral venue outside Zimbabwe's borders and he agreed to talk about what really happened when the tourists were abducted and why, in his own words, the government did not show any willingness to find them alive.

He also agreed to speak out to clear Zapu,Zipra  and the people of Matabeleland of any involvement in the kidnapping of the tourists.He said when the tourists were abducted, he got a call to report to his superior in Bulawayo for a briefing.

He was then ordered to lead a Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) unit to join the search to rescue the tourists.According to him,it was all a smokescreen as top officers knew what was going on.

"We spent the first day of the operation talking to villagers and asking them if they had seen suspicious armed men in the area with white people. The villagers were very co-operative and they gave us valuable information," said the exiled former officer.

He said after a day in Lupane, they were given information about the movement of suspicious armed men in the area.

"We followed the spoor and lady luck smilled on us.We cornered the gunmen in the forest. They still had the hostages.I gave the order to my men to shoot the gunmen but to my surprise they did not open fire," the former officer told me.

He says he repeated the order to shoot three times but there was no response from the soldiers under his command. When he asked why they were disobeying his orders, one of the soldiers told him if he continued asking too many questions, he would find himself in trouble with his superiors.

It was at this stage that he suspected something was not right.He asked himself why the soldiers did not want to kill the gunmen and rescue the hostages. He reported the actions of the soldiers to his bosses in Bulawayo but no action was taken against them.

The tourists were reported to have been killed a few days after their abduction.They were buried in a shallow grave in Gomoza. Some may ask why we bring up this issue 33 years after it happened.The answer is simple.The people of Matabeleland in general and those of Gomoza in particular have to be cleared of any involvement in the abduction and eventual killing of the tourists.

The murders of the tourists still haunt the elders in Gomoza. The following year the government unleashed the Fifth Brigade onto the people of Matabeleland and the people of Gomoza were among those tragetted extermination.

As we parted after the interview,the former officer was more concerned about my safety than his. He told me Zimbabwe was still a dangerous country where government critics disappeared or assassinated for their beliefs.