Dissidents Zimbabwe

Armed dissidents slaughtered 16 church workers and their families, including two Americans, in an nighttime attack in Zimbabwe's troubled southwestern region of Matabeleland, missionaries said Thursday. The missionaries said that four anti-government rebels attacked the Community of Reconciliation mission station near the city of Bulawayo late Wednesday.

The big metal gate to the two-story house has been left wide open. So has the front door. A stooped man with a slight frame and wispy white hair waits in the foyer. "Come in, come in," says Ian D. Smith, directing a visitor toward the parlor. "This is your seat here. I hope it suits you." Smith, the last white ruler of this southern African country known until 1980 as Rhodesia, turned 81 on Saturday.

The big metal gate to the two-story house has been left wide open. So has the front door. A stooped man with a slight frame and wispy white hair waits in the foyer. "Come in, come in," says Ian D. Smith, directing a visitor toward the parlor. "This is your seat here. I hope it suits you." Smith, the last white ruler of this southern African country known until 1980 as Rhodesia, turned 81 on Saturday.

A founder of Zimbabwe's ruling party launched a new opposition political movement with the avowed aim of preventing a dictatorship. Edgar Tekere, 52, chairman of the new Zimbabwe Unity Movement, told a news conference the current leadership is "decayed." He vowed to challenge President Robert Mugabe in the next elections, which are due before April, 1990. Tekere, who helped Mugabe establish the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union party in 1963, was fired from his party posts in October after lashing out at high-level corruption.

A founder of Zimbabwe's ruling party launched a new opposition political movement with the avowed aim of preventing a dictatorship. Edgar Tekere, 52, chairman of the new Zimbabwe Unity Movement, told a news conference the current leadership is "decayed." He vowed to challenge President Robert Mugabe in the next elections, which are due before April, 1990. Tekere, who helped Mugabe establish the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union party in 1963, was fired from his party posts in October after lashing out at high-level corruption.

As with so many good scandals, the one called "Willowgate" began unraveling with a misdirected letter. The letter and an enclosed check landed on the desk of a businessman here named Obert Mpofu. Mpofu was mystified as to why he would be entitled to a $1,900 rebate from the Zimbabwean government's Willowvale auto assembly plant for a car he had not ordered and would not be entitled to buy for many years. Then he noticed that both items were actually meant for one A. Mpofu.

Armed dissidents slaughtered 16 church workers and their families, including two Americans, in an nighttime attack in Zimbabwe's troubled southwestern region of Matabeleland, missionaries said Thursday. The missionaries said that four anti-government rebels attacked the Community of Reconciliation mission station near the city of Bulawayo late Wednesday.