and Shingirirai Mutonho

CUNNING, deceptive, ruthless and racist is how best the late controversial Rhodesian Lieutenant General Peter Walls can be described.
Born George Peter Walls in Salisbury (Harare) in 1927, the late Rhodie played a devious role in the history of Zimbabwe.
Walls became commander of the Rhodesian army and played a significant role in efforts to destroy the liberation struggle.
According to a Times Magazine article published in 2010 titled ‘Walls: We will make it work’, Walls started his journey of tormenting blacks when he received military education at the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, UK.
In the then Rhodesia, Walls pursued a career as a soldier.
He attended the British Army’s Staff College in England to further his training as a senior officer.
His training did not go in vain, though misplaced.
In 1964 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed to the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of the Rhodesian Light Infantry.
After the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), Walls was promoted to Brigadier and appointed to command the Rhodesian Army’s 2nd Brigade.
From 1972 to 1977, he held positions of Rhodesian Army’s Chief-of-Staff with the rank of Major General, rank of Lieutenant General, post of the Commander-in-Chief of Rhodesian army and head of Rhodesia’s Joint Operations’ Command.
His ugly side is revealed during the peak of the liberation struggle when he crafted various ways to cripple freedom fighters who had become too strong for the Rhodies.
In 1973, Walls persuaded Ronald Reid Daly, a captain, to form the infamous Selous Scout Unit to stem the guerilla tide.
Walls, the brains behind Selous Scouts, wanted a unit to crack down on and destroy the freedom fighters.
In an article, journalist Chris Vermaak highlights Selous Scouts as a tough and highly selected unit:
“White and black, who are said to be possibly the best and toughest bush fighters in the world,” he writes.
Selous Scouts were involved in a number of atrocities that resulted in numerous deaths of innocent people.
The unit included the likes of Iain Kay and Roy Bennett.
Under the guidance of Kay, the unit burnt more than 200 cattle belonging to innocent villagers in Svosve.
In Domboshava, Bennett operated an infamous torture base at Makumbe Mission where electrocution and killings were the order of the day.
All this was done as part of efforts by Walls to demoralise villagers and stop them from supporting freedom fighters.
The unit was also used by both Walls and their commander Daly on hot pursuit raids into Mozambique.
In 1976 Walls oversaw the introduction of indigenous Africans into the Rhodesian army as commissioned officers for the first time.
The move was aimed at turning blacks against each other.
Blacks were used to advance the whiteman’s cause.
Being part of the Rhodesian army did not mean blacks were at par with whites; they were still discriminated against.
Later that year, Walls together with Daly launched Operation Eland that resulted in the merciless killing of thousands of refugees at Nyadzonia Camp in Mozambique.
The camp operated by ZANLA housed civilians seeking refuge from the brutal Ian Smith regime.
To show his deceptive nature, Walls suggested to Daly that the Nyadzonia Raid needed to be deniable as a Rhodesian operation.
Meetings to plan the execution of Operation Eland were held at Wall’s Salisbury residence, where Winston Hart delivered a comprehensive brief, supported by maps, aerial photographs and a patchwork of disparate information and intelligence.
Operation Eland was carried out on August 9 1976.
The following year in May 1977, Walls received intelligence reports of a ZANLA force operating in the town of Mapai, Mozambique, and as expected, he launched an attack across the border to remove the ‘threat’.
Walls then crafted a change in tactics from ‘contain and hold’ to ‘search and destroy’, and also adopted a military policy of ‘hot pursuit’ when necessary.
True to his word, operations that followed were ruthless.
With the ‘search and destroy’ tactic in mind, on May 30 1977, a force of nearly 500 Rhodesian troops crossed the border into Mozambique, engaging freedom fighters with support from the Rhodesian Air Force, and paratroopers conveyed in Second World War C-47 Dakotas.
Walls announced a day later that the Rhodesian army would occupy the captured area of Mozambique until it had ‘wiped out’ all freedom fighters.
The United Nations had to intervene, with the Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim condemning the Rhodesians.
The political pressure, led by the US, prompted the Rhodesian Government to order its forces out of Mozambique.
This did not stop Walls from devising more strategies to frustrate efforts by freedom fighters to liberate the country.
In November 1977, Walls commanded another raid into Mozambique code named Operation Dingo.
The operation involved the mass killings of defenceless refugees at Chimoio Camp in Mozambique.
Following the shooting down of The Umniati, a Vickers Viscount, on February 12 1979 by ZIPRA forces in an attempt to assassinate Walls, Rhodesian forces responded by air-strikes on ZIPRA bases within the borders of Angola and Zambia.
Realising the war was proving costly and they were losing, Rhodesians devised alternative methods to divide freedom fighters.
A ‘carrot and stick’ strategy was adopted but it failed.
The Rhodesian Government tried to coax freedom fighters by offering them amnesty.
In March 1979, over one million leaflets addressed: ‘To All ZIPRA Forces’ were distributed and these carried signatures of Prime Minister Ian Smith, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, United African National Council leader Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Chief Jeremiah Chirau and Walls.
The fliers stated that any freedom fighters who abandoned thestruggle would be offered suffrage, food and medical treatment.
Following this, in April 1979, Walls issued an order to the Selous Scouts regiment to train, organise, and support militants who had defected to the Rhodesian Government as part of Operation Favour.
The operation failed and the liberation struggle continued unabated.
During the election campaign, following the Lancaster House Agreement, Walls could not imagine ZANU-PF forming the next Government if it won.
Therefore to pre-empt that possibility, he orchestrated another operation code named Operation Quartz which involved strikes against units of ZANLA at the Assembly Points prior to the announcement of the election results.
The operation also called for the assassinations of Cdes Robert Mugabe, Rex Nhongo and Simon Muzenda by the Rhodesian Special Air Service.
Operation Quartz was, however, not executed probably because Walls was stunned by the landslide victory of Cde Muagabe’s ZANU (PF).
Amid the international community’s welcome of these developments, Walls publicly announced to the press his support for the new Government and national dispensation of the Zimbabwean state.
But he was not sincere.
It should, however, be noted that during elections Walls had written to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expressing his dislike of President Robert Mugabe-led ZANU (PF).
“If Mugabe succeeds in gaining a simple majority by winning 51 seats or more, or if he is able to attract sufficient defectors from other parties, it is vital to our survival as a free nation that you declare the election null and void on the grounds of official reports of massive intimidation frustrating the free choice of the bulk of the people,” reads part of the letter.
Walls’ wishes were not granted.
After Independence, Walls was retained as commander of the new Zimbabwe National Army by the new Government to oversee the integration of freedom fighter units into its regular armed forces.
President Mugabe kept his promise of reconciliation.
On March 17 1980, only a few days after elections of the new Government, there were rumours of a coup attempt.
Walls offered his resignation within months of independence and later moved to South Africa’s Eastern Cape region.
He died in July 2010.