Someone Wishes to Speak to You

by Jeremy Mallinson

  After an uncomfortable night on a mattressless bed, Mathew was up and shaved by dawn, in a similar fashion to the timetable that he had always adhered to while carrying out his primate field studies. As he knew that he had to be back in Umtali well before sunset, he thanked Joshua for the breakfast of eggs and goat milk, gave him some banknotes, and wished him well for the future. Mathew and his armed escort then drove to the nearby village, where he had visited Edgar and Joshua quite regularly during his time in the Vumba. Although it had been over four years since his last visit he was surprised to find how deserted it was, but he did meet a few of the inhabitants that still remembered him. The village headman, Edgar’s distant cousin, Kingstone Chimuka, asked him into his kraal to have a lunch of mealies with him, while the Special Branch man was left rather unceremoniously to guard the Land Rover to prevent an assortment of scantily dressed children from climbing all over it. Gabriel provided Mathew with some valuable additional information about what had occurred in the Vumba region since ZANLA’s rocket attack on the Leopard Rock Hotel.

  ‘After the hotel was closed and taken over as a billet by the security forces, the majority of the European community in the Vumba left their properties for safer parts, which caused a considerable amount of unemployment among the villagers. Some of them went to Umtali in search of work, while others gave in to ZANU/PF’s propaganda and crossed the border to join ZANLA.’ The remainder of Gabriel’s account was much the same as Mathew had heard from his previous day’s conversations with the chief, Edgar, Joshua and the policeman.

  When Mathew sought his views on the future of Bishop Muzorewa’s new Government of National Unity, Gabriel just sighed and smiled, saying, ‘Only time will tell. It will be the African people of Zimbabwe who will ultimately decide on the country’s future, and not the European.’ A sentiment that Mathew was happy to agree with. However, when he asked Gabriel whether he considered Robert Mugabe would one day take control of the Patriotic Front and become Zimbabwe’s president, he had smiled again and said, ‘Robert Mugabe has his own ways of achieving his ambitions, some of which I would prefer not to speak about. The country’s major Shona majority will always favour having Mugabe as their president, as opposed to Joshua Nkomo and his MDC party taking control of a future Zimbabwe.’

  ‘Thank you so much for your hosptitality,’ said Mathew, getting ready to leave. ‘I need to be back in Umtali by sunset but before that, I plan to make a brief visit to my old campsite in the hope of seeing some of the monkeys. I miss their company.’ After shaking hands with what seemed like the majority of the remaining villagers, he drove slowly back to the turn-off to Castle Beacon. Mathew noticed that his Special Branch companion had started to look decidedly more relaxed in the knowledge that it would not be too long before he was back in Umtali with his companions, his bodyguard duties safely completed.

  Mathew parked the Land Rover in the shade of the familiar clump of fig trees at Castle Beacon. ‘I won’t be long, you stay here while I take a short walk up the forest trail to see whether I can find any of the monkeys that I used to know so well.’

  ‘Dr Duncan, the instructions I have been given by the inspector made it quite clear that I am not to allow you out of my sight.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me, I know it very well around here. The problem is that if I were to approach the monkeys with a stranger, they will disappear almost immediately.’

  So, once again, the policeman locked himself into the vehicle to wait for the return of his charge.

  Mathew had walked only a short distance up the forest path when he caught a glimpse of some Stairs’ monkeys, crashing through the forest canopy to the left of him. On one occasion, when two adults had detached themselves from the rest of the family group to forage quite close to where he was standing, he was almost certain that they recognised him. On his part, he had certainly identified them as two of the group’s senior alpha males.

  The next thing Mathew was aware of was waking up from a semi-conscious state, lying on some damp sacking on the wooden floor of an almost pitch-black hut. His head ached as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer, and his hair was matted with congealed blood. The cell-like dwelling was stiflingly hot and his mouth felt as parched as a piece of sandpaper. Mathew’s body was weak and dehydrated; he found it difficult to move onto his side or to raise himself.

  As he tried to collect his thoughts, the door of the hut was kicked open and for a moment the massive image of an African man in military fatigues was framed in the doorway. The figure approached him. Mathew attempted to raise his head and feebly utter the Shona greeting ‘Mangwanani’, to which the man’s only response was to grunt and kick him forcibly in the groin. After which, he threw a bucket of water over Mathew, laughed, and then left the hut as quickly as he had entered. The only consolation of the visit was that Mathew was able to scoop some small amounts of water from the bucket, which had been left on its side near to where he was lying, and to lick some moisture from his bare arms. He then slipped back into a semi-conscious state, in which he was to remain for some time.

  When Mathew had not returned to Jim Prior’s home by sunset, the D.O. immediately got in touch with BSAP H.Q. to enquire whether they had received any reports from Special Branch as to the whereabouts of their man. When this drew a blank, alarm bells immediately started to ring and wireless contact was made with BSAP and RLI units stationed in the Vumba region. They in turn were quick to organise search parties for Mathew’s Land Rover in the locations he had told Jim Prior that he planned to visit. As this included his old campsite, a detachment of RLI was sent to Castle Beacon. In the early hours of the morning, the RLI search party located the Land Rover and found locked securely inside it a very frightened-looking officer from Special Branch. They subsequently failed to find any evidence of Mathew’s presence within the forest clearing.

  Just after first light, a team of highly skilled SAS African trackers who had been rushed to the scene found a site where there had obviously had been a skirmish and traces of blood could be seen on the ground. The trackers told their lieutenant that the deep spoor they had found in the peaty ground had been left by two men and that in all probability they had been carrying something heavy, like a body. The conclusion was that Mathew had been kidnapped and carried away. The close mesh pattern of the composite rubber soles of the boots was identified as those warn by ZANLA and ZIPLA insurgents; it was believed that Mathew had been snatched by activists from the former. On receiving this information, the SAS lieutenant rapidly signalled it to his H.Q. adding that his trackers were continuing to follow the spoor and that he would signal again as soon as he had anything more to report.

  News of Dr Mathew Duncan’s kidnap by ZANLA insurgents soon reached Rhodesia’s press and made the front page in the majority of the newspapers. The Thursday morning issue of the Rhodesia Herald used the headline ‘Dead or Alive? Popular English University Lecturer Kidnapped by Terrorists in the Vumba Mountains’, and the Reuter News Agency was quick to issue a press release about the kidnap. The first time Sir Colin learned about the disappearance of his son in Africa was at the breakfast table on the Friday, when a solemn-looking Sid Stockdale handed him a copy of the Daily Telegraph and pointed to the relevant piece. This was almost immediately followed by a phone call from Sebastian in Northern Ireland, who had just been told of the news by one of his brother officers. Numerous other calls were soon received from family and friends. Both the Ilkley Gazette and Skipton’s Craven Herald News carried double-page spreads about the kidnap of Sir Colin and Lady Sally Duncan’s youngest son.

  It was fortunate that Paddy Bushney was away from home when Jan received the news, for she was unable to contain her grief and ran upstairs to collapse on her bed in floods of tears. After Anna had gone round to her home to see whether she had heard the news and how she was, Jan managed to begin to come to terms with what was happening. Although Jan had never told her friend anything about her relationship with Mathew, Anna had been aware for quite some t
ime that there was a potent chemistry between them. The looks that passed between them were far more than casual glances.

  At the University of Rhodesia, Professor Martin had launched a publicity campaign to highlight Mathew’s liberal credentials, not only including his activities within the Civil Rights Movement while he was at Scaife University in Tupelo, but also emphasising that Mathew was an ardent supporter of the forthcoming one man, one vote, elections. At the same time as the professor’s publicity campaign and the gathering of signatures to present to the offices of ZANU/PF, the commanding officer of ComOps, Lieutenant General Peter Walls, held a series of meetings with senior service personnel at Military HQ, King George VI Barracks. Before long, the SAS trackers reported that they had followed the spoor of the kidnappers to a small, earthen track, where it looked as if Mathew had been loaded on to a vehicle which was then driven speedily away to the south. Regrettably they had been unable to trace the tyre prints beyond a flooded part of the track, although they had managed to establish that the vehicle had headed south toward the Mozambique border.

  Among the many messages that General Walls received with regards to Mathew’s possible whereabouts, there was one from David Montgomery. Montgomery reminded the general how they had first met just over five years ago at Plumtree School, when he was the guest of honour at their old school’s seventieth anniversary. He said that as he knew the Vumba area and its tribespeople extremely well, he would like to help to try and locate his close friend. The retired Lt General Keith Coster had also contacted General Walls in order to tell him that he knew Mathew personally, and that everything should be done to rescue him, providing his ZANLA kidnappers had not already ended his young life.

  As ComOps had acknowledged that the Selous Scouts’ specialist Reconnaissance Troop represented the most ideal unit to infiltrate some of their Portuguese-speaking ‘turned-terrorists’ to carry out the surveillance required across the border, they had been directed to immediately undertake such a mission in the hope of finding Mathew alive. If this proved to be the case, a rescue operation was to be put into operation at the earliest opportunity. In spite of P.K. Van de Byl having been constantly approached by both the national and international press media as to whether there had been any news about Mathew’s fate, a total news blackout had been adhered to.

  The Selous Scouts’ infiltrators, in the disguise of ZANLA operatives, had taken five days to locate where Mathew was being held in a small forester’s hut, in a clearing quite close to the border to the west of Bandula in Mozambique. Once ComOps had received confirmation that Mathew was alive, they immediately assembled a task force of specialists from the SAS, Selous Scouts and RhAF, in order to arrive at a rescue plan that could be implemented as quickly as possible. They were all aware from previous ZANLA kidnappings of those they considered could provide them with valuable information that after interrogation, which usually involved torture, the victims were murdered.

  Therefore, within twenty-four hours a plan of action code-named Operation Primate was agreed upon. After Paddy Bushney informed General Walls that he knew the Bandula region well and was a personal friend of Mathew Duncan, he was appointed to lead a small group of Selous Scouts disguised as ZANLA operatives across the border to Bandula. The chief objective of Bushney’s mission was to cause a diversionary action to draw away any serious military attention that a rescue party may encounter and, during the distraction caused, a volunteer SAS assault team was to be flown to a bush landing strip within striking distance of the hut where Mathew was being held. A territorial Flight Lieutenant, Chris Falla, had made his privately owned de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver available for the mission. This type of aircraft was considered to be the most ideal to land and take off from such rough terrain. On landing, the SAS team was to be guided by one of the Selous Scouts Portuguese-speaking African soldiers to Mathew’s hut. ComOps had given Operation Primate the go-ahead to take place on the Wednesday night, exactly a week after the kidnap.

  Paddy Bushney told Jan in the strictest confidence that their mutual friend Mathew had been located and was alive, and that it was hoped an assault team of the security forces would be able to rescue him. Bushney refrained from telling her that he would be personally involved in the attempt to secure his freedom, although he had said that he expected to be away during the course of the next five to seven days on a major counter-insurgency operation. He also mentioned that during his absence, he would be happy for her to go down to Macheke to spend some more time with her sister. Jan was so overjoyed to learn that Mathew was still alive that she surprised her husband by spontaneously kissing him; he couldn’t recall when she had last acted in such an affectionate manner.

  It was later established from information gathered by the Selous Scouts specialist reconnaissance troop that it was a senior general in Robert Mugabe’s ZANLA guerrilla force, Solomon Mujuru, under his nom de guerre, Rex Nhongo, who had implemented Mathew’s kidnap. The general had known for some time about Mathew’s friendship with Chief Chidzikwee. Due to the chief’s popularity within his Manyika tribe, and as he had yet to speak out in support of Robert Mugabe and ZANU/PF, Mujuru was keen to incriminate him by producing evidence that throughout the Bush War he had been an agent of Rhodesia’s security forces and, as such, had acted as a traitor to ZANLA’s war of independence. Mujuru’s plan was to have Mathew kidnapped and, in whatever way may be necessary, for him to be made to sign a document to implement Chief Chidzikwee for having been an agent of Rhodesia’s security forces throughout the Bush War.

  Chris Falla landed his single-crop Beaver aircraft on the landing strip with the proficiency of the expert bush pilot that he was. Each of the three European and two African SAS task force members, armed with 9 mm calibre Sterling machine guns, a weapon designed specifically for close-quarter encounters with a high rate of fire, were all as tense as any rescue force on such a mission could have been. As the Selous Scout soldier started to guide the SAS men toward their quarry, they heard an explosion to the west of them, where Bushney and his men had successfully blown up one of the road bridges near to a ZANLA encampment.

  Twenty minutes later, the SAS team arrived at the clearing where Mathew was imprisoned, but just before they reached it they were almost detected by the headlights of a vehicle, emblazoned with FRELIMO markings, that was speeding down a dirt track in the direction of the explosion. Soon after this, the second member of the Selous Scouts reconnaissance team joined the SAS men and informed them that there were now only three ZANLA soldiers left guarding Mathew. After a further ten minutes, when the lieutenant in charge had carefully assessed the exact whereabouts of the soldiers, he caused a distraction by throwing a stick grenade into the nearby forest. Two of the ZANLA soldiers rushed to take cover, but were immediately dispatched by a burst of SAS machine-gun fire. After the lieutenant had shone a spotlight on the door of the hut, and the Selous Scout Portuguese-speaking soldier shouted for the third terrorist to surrender, a terrified ZANLA operative meekly came out of the hut with his hands in the air.

  Inside the hut, the lieutenant found Mathew gagged, unshaven and tied to a chair, with blood stains on his face, his torn shirt and his trousers. After the bindings were untied, Mathew attempted to stand, but immediately collapsed. The SAS team were prepared for this and had a canvas stretcher on which to carry Mathew back to the bush landing strip, with their securely handcuffed ZANLA prisoner being dragged behind them. Chris Falla had his Beaver aircraft in full readiness and after they managed to carefully load Mathew’s stretcher on to it, the overloaded aircraft managed to taxi along the bush clearing, make a perfect take-off and fly low over the border to the safety of Umtali’s RhAF base.

  As far as Mathew’s rescue was concerned, Operation Primate proved to be a highly successful operation. If the rescue attempt had failed, he would undoubtedly have ended up being murdered by his ZANLA captors. But the ultimate irony was the bittersweet ending of the whole operation, which culminated in the tragic death of Major Paddy Bushney. A
fter his task force had successfully blown up the road bridge to draw FRELIMO and ZANLA military operatives away from where Mathew was being held, he had been killed when he went back to rescue one of his badly injured African Selous Scouts. A counter attack by his men had managed to retrieve the wounded soldier, as well as the body of their leader. At much the same time that Bushney had been shot and killed, Falla landed his DHC-2 Beaver at the RhAF base in Umtali.

  After an army doctor had climbed on board the aircraft to examine Mathew, he found him to be suffering from chronic dehydration and due to the condition of both of his feet, as he was unable to place any weight on them, the stretcher had to be carried to a military ambulance that was waiting for him. Once transferred to a small military hospital for treatment, Mathew was immediately put on a saline/glucose drip, after which the doctor was able to carry out a thorough examination. He found that the soles of his feet had been quite badly lacerated, which as Mathew later told both the doctor and Special Branch was due to frequent beatings by one of his ZANLA captors, using a bamboo stick. This was because he repeatedly refused to sign a document that his captors had presented to him in order to incriminate Chief Chidzikwee as being a long-term informer for the security forces, reporting on ZANU/PF activities. By doing so, they wanted to portray the chief to his people as a traitor to his Manyika/Shona tribe, and to ZANLA’s fight for freedom from the yoke of the Europeans.

  The torture went further than the soles of his feet and the many cigarette burns on his chest. Mathew told a senior Special Branch officer that on one occasion he was blindfolded, tied to a tree, and told that unless he put his signature to the document he would be shot. The person who they had referred to as their leader, General Nhongo, told them that he would have all three of the interrogators severely punished should they fail in their attempt to get their captive to sign the document concerned. Although Mathew had been left out in the scorching sun for some time, and occasionally punched in the stomach, he had steadfastly refused to sign the incriminating notice and, having fainted, he had only come round again when a bucket of water was thrown over him after being returned to the hut.