«Later we learned that my father had
been killed. We were told the details.
The Portuguese asked him: 'Do you know
why we are going to kill you? ' He said
he did not, and they told him: 'We are
going to kill you because your son went
to FRELIMO, he is a FRELIMO official.
FRELIMO is killing us so we arc going to
kill you.' My father answered: 'You
may kill me. My life is nothing and my
son is where he must be. Yes, it is true
that he went to FRELIMO.'
«The Portuguese gave my father a shovel
and told him to dig a hole. He dug for a
while and asked if it was enough. They
told him to try to get into the hole. He
got in. The Portuguese officer aimed at
him but the gun got stuck. It fired on
the second attempt. My father died
immediately and they left him in the hole
without burying him.
«My mother went to the spot later, but
when she was taking the body out of the
hole the Portuguese soldiers saw her. She
ran away to the bush where I joined her.
Then we met FRELIMO soldiers who
took us to a base and took care of us.   I
decided to remain at the base and join
the Women's Detachment.
«My father was a peasant. He had a small
plot of land, but in order to pay taxes he
had to work for the Portuguese for at
least three months every year.
«Besides my father, my uncle was also
killed. He was beaten to death. I saw
Portuguese and Rhodesian soldiers together in the massacres.
«My brother was the first of us to join
FRELIMO. My father had gone to FRELIMO and told them: 'I have a son but
the Portuguese will take him for the army.
1 want him to be in the FRELIMO army.'
That was how my brother joined FRELIMO. FRELIMO is the only hope for
peace in our country, for our people.))
Gloria David, Aroni's niece, said: I was
in Rhodesia, where I had gone to visit my
family. When I returned I learned that
uncle had been killed, our village had been
massacred and all the rest of my family
was with FRELIMO. I decided then that
I too would join FRELIMO and I am
now proud to be a member of the
Women's Detachment.))
A  PRIEST DESCRIBES
PORTUGUESE BUTCHERY
A Portuguese Priest, Father Henrique Fernandes who witnessed
the massacres which took place
in Mukumbura m the southern
region of Tete in May 1971 as a
reprisal for the death of three
Rhodesian soldiers wrote a letter
to the Portuguese Head of State
denouncing the crimes. . .
In a letter directly addressed
to Premier Caetano and published in the Spanish Catholic
weekly "Vida Nueva", a Portuguese priest, Father Henrique Fernandes reveals the atrocities committed over the past
year in Mukumbura district,
in northern Mozambique.
Still under the shock of what
he has seen, the priest cites
precise events and names, in
order that the Portuguese propaganda response should not,
yet again, be that these are
"fanciful and utterly groundless accusations liable to harm
the understanding between
the overseas communities".
It is for this reason, feeling
that it was no longer possible
to be silent before the innocent victims of this shameful
war, that Father Fernandes
wrote directly to the Head of
State. According to the facts
reported, all civilians suspected of helping the FRELIMO
guerrillas or of merely sympathising with the nationalist
movement, are executed and
thrown into hastily dug pits.
Last May, 26 persons were
shot. In September, 15 others were killed by Rhodesian troops called in to help
the Portuguese high Command. A teacher at the
Mukumburu Catholic Mission
the father of three small children, was mowed down by
one of the bursts of shots
fired  without  any  warning.
In the course of that same
day numerous women as well
as children were also massacred. When the butchery
was finished, the soldiers
made a human funeral-prye
with the bodies.
"On 10 October" continues
the priest's hallucinatory account, "Portuguese commandos entered the village of Dak
and massacred 19 innocents
on the spot. After arresting
teacher Damiano Conca, who
also belonged to the local
Catholic mission, they dragged
him into the school and, in
the presence of his pregnant
young wife and their two
children, beat him for an hour
and a half with pickaxe blows
until all his limbs were smashed.
In November, a group of 40
commandos from the special
forces transported by helicopter, were given the order
to burn and kill throughout
the region situated between
Chinoa and Buxo. Within a
few hours there were dozens
of victims, among them 13
children. All the African
huts were systematically burnt.
In the village of Antonio,
Portuguese troops put 16 wo-
and children in a hut and they
burned them alive.
10