Australian peacekeepers in Southern Rhodesia with CMF 1979 to 1980

History of Rhodesia

In the late 19th century, Britain chartered the territory to the British South Africa Company, led by Cecil Rhodes. The company ruled the area until 1923, when Southern Rhodesia attained self-government and established a legislature.

Between 1953 and 1963, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Nyasaland (now Malawi) joined Southern Rhodesia in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

In the early 1960s, new political parties emerged:

• 1961 – Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) founded and led by Joshua Nkomo
• 1962 – the white population created a new right-wing party, the Rhodesian Front
• 1963 – Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) founded and led by Ndabaningi Sithole, Herbert Chitepo and Robert Mugabe.

From 1965 to 1979, Rhodesia and South Africa were independent states in Africa governed by a white minority of European descent. The ruling white minority was less than 5% of Zimbabwe's population.

The Rhodesian Front became more repressive. It controlled the media, introduced strict security legislation and jailed leading black nationalists.

On 11 November 1965, the Rhodesian Government, led by Ian Smith, made a unilateral declaration of independence. The United Nations (UN) did not recognise Rhodesia and imposed sanctions until the 1980s.

Increasing conflict

ZANU's Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and ZAPU's Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) were based in Zambia. They conducted a frontal attack across the Zambezi in a quest for independence.

In 1971, ZANLA started politicising the black population in rural areas, inspired by the Maoist teachings of a people's war. This involved maintaining the support of the population and drawing the enemy (in this case, white Rhodesians) into a guerrilla war.

As Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) became more violent, shooting curfew-breakers and bombing villages, ZAPU and ZANU united in an uneasy alliance known as the Patriotic Front.

By mid-1979, around 2,000 people were dying each month. The war was costing Rhodesia A$1 million a day.

Throughout this period, many UN Security Council resolutions condemned Southern Rhodesia (a self-governing British colony) for failing to end the rebellion and for 'inhumane executions'. These included Resolution 253, adopted on 29 May 1968, which prevented trade, transport and investment with Southern Rhodesia.

Zimbabwe-Rhodesia

In March 1978, Smith made a partial surrender. He signed an agreement with 3 moderate, pro-Western black leaders. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Chief Jeremiah Chirau and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole formed an executive council with Ian Smith. They ran the country, now called 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'.

White Rhodesians still had a disproportionate number of seats in the Muzorewa government. They endorsed a new constitution in January 1979. Under the new constitution, the white minority was still in control of the security forces, the police and the judiciary, and could prevent further constitutional change for 10 years. Many countries, including Australia, refused to recognise the Muzorewa government. Elections in April 1979 returned Muzorewa's United African National Council (ANC) government.

Lancaster House Agreement 1979

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was held in Zambia in August 1979.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere convinced British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to abandon the current settlement. They suggested all parties, including the Patriotic Front, attend a conference to discuss a new settlement and constitution.

The Lancaster House Conference, from 10 September to 21 December 1979, included:

• the 'Salisbury delegation' – Muzorewa, Smith and Lieutenant General Walls
• Mugabe and Nkomo, as the 2 Patriotic Front leaders
• Commonwealth members.

By mid-October, the Patriotic Front agreed to a parliament of 100 members with 20 seats reserved for white Rhodesians. Agreeing to a ceasefire took longer.

By 6 November, after persuasive discussions, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Kenya had agreed to contribute to a force of 300 personnel. A week later, CHOGM chairman and British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, announced Britain would lead the monitoring force and a ceasefire commission.

Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF)

In the end, Carrington and others had to agree to a force of about 1,500, with about 1,200 British (mainly from the army and air force), 152 Australians, 76 New Zealanders, 46 Kenyans and 24 Fijians.

The Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF), sometimes called the Commonwealth Liaison, Advisory and Monitoring Organisation, Southern Rhodesia (CLAMOR), was established on 1 December 1979. The Commonwealth peacekeeping mission was to supervise the implementation of the Lancaster House Agreement between the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government and the Patriotic Front forces. The CMF would supervise the ceasefire in the lead-up to the 1980 elections. The elections would establish the governance of a new independent state.

Britain contributed the most troops and took on the most dangerous roles. Australia, Fiji, Kenya and New Zealand also sent troops. The Australian Government was not enthusiastic about participating. The Vietnam War was still fresh in people's minds and it was unclear how a conflict in Africa was a threat to Australia.

When the Australian Government announced participation in the CMF, politicians were at pains to emphasise that the CMF would not have a 'peacekeeping' role, by which they meant that it would monitor but not enforce the peace. The point in the post-Vietnam era was that it would therefore not be involved in fighting and hence that the risk of casualties would be low.

[Londey, Peter; Crawley, Rhys; Horner, David. The Long Search for Peace: Volume 1, The Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations.]

But Australia had little choice about being involved after helping to negotiate the Lancaster House Agreement.

CMF monitoring agreement

The CMF resembled a UN observer mission but had more extensive duties. According to the British operational instruction, the CMF's mission in Rhodesia was to monitor the ceasefire, which came into effect at midnight on 28 December 1979, until the result of the election was declared. The election was held from 27 to 29 February 1980.

The roles of CMF personnel were to:

• monitor and observe the ceasefire
• monitor the Assembly Point camps (APs) of the Patriotic Front
• monitor the activities of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF).

However, Carrington had agreed that the CMF could only monitor the RSF bases, not all RSF activities, so the special forces largely avoided peacekeeper scrutiny.

Australia's involvement

The final ASCSR was 151 men from the Australian Army, including 35 officers and 116 non-commissioned officers (NCOs), with no one below the rank of corporal. Originally, it would have been half of the proposed 300-person CMF, but at the last minute, the United Kingdom increased its contribution to 1,200 people.

Australian troops had not served overseas since the Vietnam War, so the Department of Defence wanted to spread the experience offered by service in Rhodesia. It selected personnel from various combat and combat support units of the Australian Army, including signals, logistics, artillery, armour and infantry.

Colonel Kevin Cole commanded the Australian contingent. He arrived in Salisbury (now Harare) with an advance party on 23 December 1979. The main Australian contingent arrived on 25 December 1979. There was little time to explore as they deployed across the country before the ceasefire started on 28 December.

There was trepidation … when we went over, especially when we left Brisbane – Australians going to a deathly Christmas … in godforsaken Africa, that was the headlines … going over to certain death if it all went wrong.

[Darryl 'Doc' Brain, oral history interview, quoted in World Wide Effort: Australia's Peacekeepers]

Role of the Australian CMF members

Some Australian members of the CMF monitored and reported on the Assembly Point (APs) camps where the Patriotic Front had agreed to gather. Others monitored the bases of the RSF.

There were many breaches of the ceasefire and intimidation from all sides.

Commonwealth peacekeepers in Southern Rhodesia faced several risks:

• The small force was vulnerable if a peaceful transition failed.
• There was a range of diseases.
• There were landmines all over the country.
• Some of the Patriotic Force's security practices were unsafe, such as carrying hand grenades on their belts.

AWM P01940.003

Elections and withdrawal

The elections took place over 3 days, from 27 to 29 February 1980, without major incident. The major parties were:

• Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union
• Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union.

Australian Darryl 'Doc' Brain was in Rhodesia as part of the ASCSR during the February 1980 election.

I've never seen so many people walk 20 miles, 30 miles. It didn't matter and the queues of people you know, 5 to 10 km long waiting to vote.

[World Wide Effort: Australia's Peacekeepers, Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2022]

Mugabe's party won 63% of the votes cast and 57 of the 80 seats offered in the election. The transition to independence was smooth. President Mugabe wanted Australian troops to stay to oversee the integration of ZIPRA and ZANLA with the RSF.

The Australian Government decided that the Australian members of the contingent should leave their Assembly Points (APs) with the Patriotic Front forces and RSF bases on 3 March 1980. Most Australian service personnel left the country on 5 March. Five Australians under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Les Hubble remained in the country to provide help for an extra 10 days.

Rhodesia was officially renamed Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980.

Commemoration

In its summary of the CMF in Rhodesia, the Official History stated sending such a small, lightly equipped force to a country experiencing a long civil war was 'an insane and irresponsible gamble on the part of politicians in London.'

However, Australia's involvement in Zimbabwe was one of Australia's more successful peacekeeping operations. It was also Australia's largest peacekeeping operation during the Cold War period, but one that is often overlooked.

National Peacekeepers' Day

On 14 September each year, we observe National Peacekeepers' Day. It's the anniversary of the day Australia became the world's first peacekeepers to deploy into the field, in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1947. It's a day to recognise the important work of those who have served, and continue to serve, in the name of global peace.

Learn more about Australia's peacekeeping missions since 1947.