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Today I will share about the Chemical and Biological warfare on Zimbabwe. It’s a part of history I think is often overlooked when talking about Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle against the colonialists. It’s a decent 26 tweets read.
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On the face of it, Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle was like many others. The black natives picked up their arms & decided enough is enough & fought valiantly against the white colonialists. But beyond this something more heinous took place as well.
Chemical & Biological warfare is considered a war crime as it is prohibited under Customary International Humanitarian Law together with a number of International Treaties. In biological warfare there’s the use of biological toxins such as bacteria or viruses-
-with the intent to kill or in other cases incapacitate humans as an act of war. Whilst wars are terrible already, the use of chemicals and biological tools to fight is more frowned upon. In loose laymen terms, it’s like bringing a gun to a fist fight, just a no no.
Our story starts off on 8 June 1977, a day like any other at Chimoio training camp in Mozambique. The ZANLA recruits were going through their training in preparation to join the trenches to fight for liberation. BUT...the enemy was already in their midst.
Bernard Nyatongo (guerilla name Ndudzo Pasihaparowi) initially began to feel a slight headache. Before you know it he was having dizziness & severe body chills, which naturally had others suspect that he had malaria. Whilst trying to figure it all out, he sadly died.
But this was only the beginning of a lived horror most of us only read in books, because as they were about to mourn their comrade more died as well. A total of 11 recruits died that day alone one after the other. You can imagine what effect this had on the others.
Given this strange phenomenon they realized that this was definitely not a case of a malaria outbreak in the camp. At this point the losing side of the Rhodesian forces was desperate to win the war hence the use of chemical & biological tools.
The chemical program was designed by Professor Robert Symington, who headed the clinical programme at the then University of Rhodesia’s Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine. As early as the last quarter of 1974, Symington was working with the Ministry-
-to devise a system of exterminating freedom fighters, using various poisons. The plan was presented to the Defence Minister P. K. van der Byl, who brought it to Ian Smith. Following consultations with his War Cabinet, Smith delegated responsibility to the-
-Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) while implementation was assigned to the Special Branch liaison component in the Selous Scouts.
CIO chief Ken Flower was certainly aware of the CBW activities, having received biweekly reports from his officer in charge of the programme Michael ‘Mac’ McGuinness, British South Africa Police (BSAP) commissioners, first Sherren and later Allum,-
-all were briefed on the CBW efforts, and at least Sherren took steps to ensure that the programme remained concealed. The Rhodesian CBW team targeted freedom fighters operating both within and outside Rhodesia’s borders.
Rhodesian literature reveals that the CBW team began to poison clothing in April 1977 as well as contaminating food, beverages and medicines between May and June 1977. The project did not end until late 1979.
The chemicals used in the CBW programme were parathion (an organophosphate insecticide) and thallium (a heavy metal commonly found in rodenticide) probably because these compounds were readily available in Rhodesia at the time and were relatively inexpensive.
Among the biological agents the Rhodesians selected for use were vibrio cholerae (causative agent of cholera) and possibly bacillus anthracis (causative agent of anthrax). They also looked at using rickettsia prowazekii (causative agent of epidemic typhus)-
-and salmonella typhi (causative agent of typhoid fever), and toxins such as ricin and botulinum.
Cyanide was used to contaminate medical injectables of antibiotics and vitamins. Organo phosphorous compounds were used to contaminate clothes, in particular underwear, jeans or other items of clothing preferred by guerillas.
Thousands of guerillas were killed this way. Food, in particular canned or tinned beef, tinned jam or beers, as well as wine in bottles with wooden cocks, was poisoned with thallium, the most lethal chemical warfare agent.
The thallium was injected into the sealed tins or bottle tops by the use of syringes with fine needles. Many comrades either died on the spot or found themselves with severe diarrhoea and vomiting and later developed severe aloplecia and sudden greying-
-of the hair and with severe peripheral neuropathy was often the end result. Sell-outs were planted among villagers who would poison food cooked for the freedom fighters. This resulted in freedom fighters resorting to having villagers who would have cooked-
-food for them to taste it first or join in the meal. The move forced freedom fighters either to travel through arid regions or to carry more water and less ammunition or travel through areas patrolled by the security forces.
In 1973, the Rhodesian army began to poison wells in Gaza and Tete with cholera (vibrio cholerae), in part to force guerillas moving over the border to take other routes where they could be more easily shot.
The Selous Scouts introduced cholera bacteria into the water supply for the FRELIMO and ZANLA camps at Madulo Pan not far from Malvernia. By sabotaging pumps and pipelines, the Scouts forced the guerillas to use tainted ground water.
Unaccountable cholera outbreaks were reported in various parts of Rhodesia as a consequence of ongoing deployments of spore and the natural spread of the disease.
In June 1977, The Operations Coordinating Committee requested the officer commanding Special Branch to provide detailed figures for deaths of freedom fighters that could be attributed to poisoning. The figures supplied indicated that 809-
-individuals had succumbed to this method in a period of six months. The international community banned the use of chemical and biological weapons after The First World War and reinforced the ban in 1972 and 1993 by prohibiting the development, production,-
-stockpiling and transfer of these weapons. For today I end here. There’s more you can read on this to help you know more than I shared.
#KnowYourHistory #Zimbabwe #ChemicalAndBiologicalWarfare
#KnowYourHistory #Zimbabwe #ChemicalAndBiologicalWarfare
