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Ex-Rhodie airforce pilot reveals RENAMO training base in Odzi

17 Apr, 2019 - 18:04 0 Views
Ex-Rhodie airforce pilot reveals RENAMO training base in Odzi A Rhodesian combat helicopter lands at a secret training base on a farm in Odzi

The ManicaPost

In an autobiography book “Winds of Destruction”, Rhodesian combat pilot Petter-Bowyer reveals how in 1978 the racist Smith regime trained RENAMO bandits and deployed them in Mozambique in an effort to disrupt the movement of ZANLA fighters who were using Mozambique as the main rear base. He also reveals that RENAMO had radio broadcast from Rhodesia into Mozambique. Below is his account:

In late December 1978, I visited an isolated farm in the Odzi farming area east of Umtali. Here, at a top-secrete Central Intelligence Organisation base, training was being conducted for a resistance movement that was intent on ousting FRELIMO from power. This organisation was variously known as MRM (Mozambican Resistance Movement), MNR (Mozambican National Resistance) and RENAMO. MNR was the term we preferred.

Milling around the helicopter I had flown myself on this visit was a scruffy but happy group of Mozambicans with huge smiles. A fair-sized force of these men was already operating in Mozambique and scoring spectacular success against FRELIMO. Special Air Service (SAS) were about to deploy with the resistance force to give them the training and direction that only the SAS could provide.

Air-force would be needed for resupply and other supporting roles. Surprisingly, when the time came for the first Para-supply by Dakotas, it was to deliver maize and vegetable seeds with only small amounts of ammunition and troop comforts included. The reason for this was that the MNR had little need for weapons or ammunition because they were capturing most of what they required from FRELIMO.

The willing support being given MNR by the local people bore testimony to the tribesmen’s utter dislike of FRELIMO. However, willing as they were, these poor folk could not hope to provide all the food needs of the fast growing resistance force. So, in response to SAS direction, MNR needed seed to grow its own crops for self sufficiency within its safe havens in the forests and valleys surrounding Gorongonza mountain. FRELIMO had antagonised the rural people in so many ways. They had kicked out Mozambique’s white Portuguese and, in doing so, had brought about the destruction of the income base upon which rural families depended. Without the Portuguese, earnings by previous commercial, industrial and domestic workers had dried up. None of FRELIMO’s pre-independence promises had materialised so the peasants, who had been forced into failed communal farming activities, were much worse off than at any time during their relatively stress-free existence under Portuguese rule.

The peoples’ trust in MNR to return them to situations of ‘the good old days’ was reinforced by well-orchestrated radio broadcasts beamed from Rhodesia by Portuguese-speaking presenters. “The voice of free Africa” services, whilst boosting the MNR image, incensed FRELIMO by emphasising the impotence of its leadership and slating communist ideologies that were failing to fill stomachs or keep people warm and children educated. The Mozambican peasants liked what they were hearing and MNR’s popularity soared and spread.

The MNR might have substantially altered the course of our war had funds been available when they were needed back in 1976. This was another of many situations to which the “too-little-too-late” tag might be pinned because, from the outset, MNR was very pro-white, pro-Rhodesia and violently anti-communist. This they demonstrated by providing us with some important intelligence on ZANLA’s activities and locations. Of greater importance to Rhodesia was the fact that MNR activities were so troublesome to FRELIMO that earlier plans to pour more FRELIMO troops into the Op Repulse  area were shelved. In fact many FRELIMO earmarked for Rhodesia were withdrawn to combat the MNR “bandits”.

Whereas there had been no question of using the MNR to fight ZANLA terrorists in Mozambique, FRELIMO sought ZANLA’s assistance to combat the MNR. Had such a situation arisen two years earlier, combined Rhodesian and MNR action would have permitted our own forces to operate in depth against ZANLA and FRELIMO for as long as we chose, unencumbered by aircraft shortages and servicing cycles. Furthermore with the MNR seeking as much credit as possible for anti-FRELIMO activities, the destruction of Mozambique’s communications networks would have been made easy and would almost certainly have resulted in ZANLA’s eviction from Mozambique.

The SAS enjoyed leading MNR and witnessed some very hairy fighting. They held back from each action to avoid compromising themselves and watched aghast when the first MNR leader, Andre, initiated ambushes and attacks by leaping to his feet, fully exposing himself with gun above head to shout the MNR slogan that triggered each action.

True or not, I cannot say, but I heard that FRELIMO soldiers were petrified of MNR. The story goes that MNR  sometimes removed the heads of their victims and scattered them around to make matching them to bodies difficult. Every FRELIMO soldier hearing of this was worried that, should this happen to him, his spirit would remain trapped in his body if someone else’s head was buried with it.

The SAS personnel operating with MNR were changed over regularly without difficulties until their operations spread southward to a new sector in the region of Chipinga. Here the MNR group resisted an SAS changeover fearing that they were about to be abandoned. At Gorongoza it was normal practice for the four SAS men assigned to the MNR to move miles clear of the base area to meet the team changeover helicopter.

Whilst awaiting the arrival of the replacement team, the MNR remained inside their safe haven totally surrounded by loyal tribesmen. However, even having gained the confidence and open support of the locals for miles around, the relatively small MNR group camping in hills east of Chipinga only felt safe with SAS in their midst. In consequence, we were faced with an unusual problem when we learned that these MNR men were holding their SAS colleagues hostage to prevent them from moving off for a changeover the MNR leader feared might not take place.

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