The Sunday Mail
WE continue our discussion with CDE BENJAMIN DYIRAKUMUNDA, who, like thousands of other youths, abandoned his studies at Highfield Mhuriimwe School in Harare and made the long trip to Mozambique. In the last instalment, the freedom fighter took us through his journey from Glen Norah in Harare to Doroi in Mozambique.
Read on as our Senior Reporter, TENDAI CHARA (TC), continues the lively discussion with the brave Cde Dyirakumunda (BD).
TC: We concluded our discussion with you being at Doroi refugee camp where living conditions were very bad. Kindly take us through the rest of your liberation war sojourn.
BD: We stayed for a long time at Doroi where I was reunited with a colleague named George who had travelled from Harare to join us. Like I said the conditions were very bad. We often went hungry and we would eat our small portions of sadza with pinches of salt. On rare occasions, we had the rare luxury of eating dried and salted fish which we called Bakayiwa. On countless occasions, we ate tree leaves for dinner. From Doroi, we were taken to Chimoio for training. We were at Mapinduzi base, which was later referred to as Takawira One base. I remember Vice President Constantino Chiwenga was an instructor at Takawira and so was former police Commissioner General Cde Augustine Chihuri. The two took me through basic military training.
The basic training focused mostly on individual tactics and small arms handling. We were taught how to use the light machine guns and the rifles. The machine guns were sourced from China and Romania. We also had seven round rifles. We were taken to the range for target practice. I particularly liked this phase because it was the first time that I started using a real gun. I was very good during target practice and the commanders decided to have me specialise in anti-air guns. I had to go to Takawira Base 2 for the anti-air specialist training. After finishing the course, it was decided that we go for an instructor’s course. After finishing the instructor’s course, I was once again selected to undergo further training, this time in the operation of a two-barrel anti-aircraft gun. The training was supposed to be held at Takawira Base 1. However, on the day that we were supposed to start the training, Chimoio refugee camp was attacked by the Rhodesian army. I remember we were at the assembly point where we were being given the duties for the day. Takawira base was a distance from the main camp where the majority of the people were also on parade.
It was around 8 am and I was at the base reception. There was a small hill to the west of Takawira base. The camp headquarters were to the east and to the north was a small dam. Our camp was in the middle of the hill, the headquarters and the dam. As I was standing at the reception, I noticed a small plane that was coming from the direction of the hill and moving towards headquarters. The plane flew over our base and within moments after the plane had passed, we heard a deafening noise. The Chimoio attack had started. Our superiors told us that we were under attack so we had to disperse and use the individual tactics that we had been taught. We ran towards the hill. We could not go towards the headquarters because there was an open field and we could be exposed to the bombing.
Before the hill was a depression and when I got to the depression, a helicopter suddenly came into view, spraying bullets targeting those of us who were running towards the hill. I was lucky, when the helicopter arrived, I was a bit ahead of some of my fleeing colleagues who were sadly mowed down by Rhodesian bullets. When I came to the hill, I looked back and noticed that the Rhodesian planes were dropping paratroopers. These paratroopers started shooting at the fleeing refugees. A paratrooper was dropped near me and I lay still and then crawled towards the hill unnoticed. I could hear bombs being dropped at the headquarters. When I was out of danger, I met some of my colleagues who had also escaped and we discussed the way forward.
We decided to go to the nearest FRELIMO base and when we arrived at the base, we were told by the Mozambican soldiers that there was nothing they could do to assist us. For the whole day, the Rhodesian planes dropped bombs before a helicopter landed at the headquarters. The Rhodesian army spent the whole night at the bombed camp, setting booby traps and finishing off the injured. The Mozambican army did not dare attack the Rhodesian forces.
The following day, the Rhodesian army left the camp and it was decided that we return to the bombed camp. We then went back to the camp.
TC: What did you see at the bombed camp?
BD: I saw death and destruction. There were so many dead people and very few who were still in the camp injured. Remember we returned to the camp a day after the bombing. Bodies were beginning to decompose. Some comrades had jumped into the dam that I earlier on said was located north of the main camp. They had drowned and bodies were now floating. There were so many dead bodies. A trench was dug by earth-moving machines and I was part of the group that retrieved the floating bodies and placed them in the trench. The bodies were partly decomposed and at times body parts fell off as we retrieved the victims. In the end, we were forced to place the decomposing bodies on sacks and then pull them out of the water. From the dam, we also got into the camp where we saw dead comrades. Some were killed as they were hiding under trees and some had some missing body parts. We then went to Parirenyatwa and Chindunduma bases where I came face to face with horror. The Chindunduma base housed children and it was a horrific sight.
I saw dead children who had gathered under a tree and had been bombed. We buried so many people. It was painful. For me, it was the first time that I faced the death of so many people. It greatly affected me to the extent that I could not eat meat for many years, even after the war had ended. Each time I tried to eat meat, the smell of death would engulf my nostrils and I would then vomit. My experiences at Chimoio were very bad.
TC: After burying the dead, where did you go?
BD: After burying the dead, the two-barrel training could not go ahead. The instructor who was supposed to have taken us through the course had sadly died. I forgot the instructor’s name. He was the only person from the Takawira base who tried to resist the bombing by firing at the planes with an anti-air. He ran all the way to the position where the anti-air was and managed to fire some shots. Sadly, his position was bombed and we lost this brave soldier. From Chimoio, we were taken to Pungwe Base, a base which was located near the Pungwe River and housed trained cadres awaiting deployment to the front.
I was among a group of cadres that was selected to go for further training in Yugoslavia. I refused to go. I wanted to go to the front. George was among that group and he went to Yugoslavia. Another group was selected to go to China and again, my name was among the list. I refused to go but my friend Cairo took the opportunity and flew to China.
I could not face the commanders and tell them that I did not want to go to Yugoslavia or China. All I did was simply make myself unavailable on the day that I was supposed to go for the trainings.
Don’t miss our next edition in which Cde Dyirakumunda will be chronicling his escapades on the war front.
