Posted on 08/29/2002 12:47:24 AM PDT by MadIvan
The SAS has reconnoitred the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe in preparation for a possible evacuation of British citizens, defence officials said yesterday.
The purpose of their mission was to identify a number of coordination points inside Zimbabwe where the Britons, mainly white farmers, could be collected before a mass convoy into South Africa.
The Ministry of Defence's Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood, Middlesex, has also drawn up plans for an RAF evacuation of other British citizens by plane from Harare airport.
The contingency plans to move the estimated 20,000 British citizens inside Zimbabwe include the use of RAF transport aircraft and members of the Parachute Regiment, who will be on exercise in South Africa from the end of next month until December.
There are another 20,000 whites in the country, almost all of them Zimbabwean nationals.
Up to 300 men from 1 Bn, the Parachute Regiment, will spend three months carrying out trials jumping from the new C130J Hercules transport aircraft.
They will be accompanied by an RAF C17 Globemaster transport aircraft, a VC10 military airliner and two C130J aircraft. Their exercises will be carried out with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
The MoD said the exercise was "absolutely not" connected to the situation in Zimbabwe. "This is a long-planned air concentration exercise, the first of a series of trials that will be taking place twice a year," a spokesman said.
The Foreign Office last night played down any connection between the dispatch of the troops and the crisis in Zimbabwe.
"We keep contingency plans up to date for most parts of the world, but we are not moving to implement any such plans for Zimbabwe," said a spokesman.
"A large-scale military operation does not fit in with what we estimate is required. If it were needed, there are contingency plans and they could be implemented in a short time."
But defence officials said the paratroopers were part of the contingency plans and would be ideally placed if troops were needed for a defensive escort for any evacuation.
"There is a lack of willingness by UK Plc to get involved because any intervention will be bloody and if we are forced to go in, it will not be easy," said one official. "Zimbabwe is a well-armed country.
"But if the war veterans start to evict farmers and there is mass slaughter of UK nationals we will be forced to intervene." Military planners at Northwood were putting the final touches to an evacuation operation which could require British troops to go in for a very brief period "possibly just 24 hours", the officials said.
"The obvious evacuation route is by road, but they could easily block this and we must therefore plan for an air intervention as we did in Sierra Leone two years ago."
The paratroopers would support the SAS in providing a defensive ring for an operation known as a rapid air landing, in which RAF transports would fly into Harare airport to take out the Britons.
They would be escorted by Tornado ground attack aircraft and in the second phase of the evacuation the Britons would be flown out in a so-called tactical air land operation.
The paratroopers, who have carried out exercises in South Africa before and have strong links to SANDF, will be based in Cape Town and Kimberley.
Although the MoD has made it clear that it does not want to deploy troops in Zimbabwe, the possibility of the need for a mass evacuation has increased with President Mugabe's latest attempts to drive white farmers off their land.
He ordered 2,900 of the remaining 4,500 white farmers to quit their land without compensation by Aug 8. About 60 per cent have defied the deadline and almost 300 have been arrested and charged for defying the orders.
A Zimbabwean High Court judge yesterday ruled that eviction orders served on 54 white farmers were illegal, but Mr Mugabe has consistently ignored court rulings that went against his orders.
On Tuesday, he refused talks with the white farmers. "There is no room for talks," he told a rally in south-eastern Zimbabwe. "There is no room for any negotiations because the real owners of this land are asserting their rights and reclaiming their land."
Mr Mugabe says his land drive is aimed at correcting colonial injustice which left 70 per cent of the best farm land in the hands of white farmers. The farmers say they support land redistribution but not forced evictions.
Regards, Ivan
The price Britain is about to pay for this, since there IS a God in heaven, no matter what Britain thinks, is a monstrously high and incalculable one.
Never send to know for whom the coming Asteroid is looking, GB, it is looking for YOU!
Excuse me, this is not inevitable. We are late to the game, but finally, we are doing the right thing. It's too bad eliminating Mugabe is not on the cards. What we should have done is never taken down the Union Jack over Africa. Anywhere.
Regards, Ivan
The SAS versus a bunch of drunken war veterans? Yes, Mugabe's boys are going to be going home in body bags. Good.
Regards, Ivan
If you feel the Union Jack never should have come down in the first place, then we agree.
Regards, Ivan
One question. Once the white farmers are driven out of this benighted country, who is going to grow the food to feed the populace? Answer: The UN will demand that the west provide the food free.
The nearest port is Biera which is 250 km from Zim's eastern border across Mozambique. The nearest place for a naval task force is the Mozambique Channel.
In a military adventure, logistics is determinative.
Any expedition into Zim will need the acquiescence of South Africa or Mozambique and probably both.
An ostensible expedition to extract British and Commonwealth nationals has probably gotten the nod from Mbeki.
An ostensible expedition by a former colonial power to take out the revolutionary president of an African nation will never be accepted anywhere in Africa.
Sometimes an "ostensible" can lead to a different actual "for reasons of operational necessity".
Well logically that would make more sense. But if we were to do that the politically correct, among them Labour MPs, would get, you know, grumpy.
And we can't have that.
rolling eyes
Regards, Ivan
If I see a "Zimbabwe Relief Fund" commercial on my telly I am not going to give a farthing to it. Sod them, they had the ability to eat, they threw it away.
Regards, Ivan
Explain to me how this statement makes any sense?
Is it the eviction or the slaughter that will provoke action?
It is my impression that most of these white farmers are not British citizens, so, what's being said?
When the slaughter begins, they will kill all the whites, right? (so what about them?)
How long have we known that Africans do not believe that "diversity is our strength" BS?
I'm not as encouraged as most of you about this news, the Brits have gone wobbly.
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