Early March 1977.

Interview with Major Ronald Reid-Daly (1928-2010), the Commander of the Selous Scouts Special Forces Unit of the Rhodesian Army at Inkomo Barracks in Salisbury, the capital city of Rhodesia (later renamed Zimbabwe).

After briefly referring to his military background which included a period serving in a Rhodesian Squadron of the British Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), Major Reid-Daly issued a denial by Black African Nationalist organisations that the Selous Scouts had murdered Roman Catholic missionaries in an operation designed to blame the Nationalists.

Interview Transcript:

Reid-Daly: "I volunteered for a spell in the Far East as part of the Commonwealth effort in the Malayan campaign. The Rhodesians formed a squadron in the British S.A.S. and I was with them for two years, and this of course, was a tremendous training ground for me, and gave me a very good background to the knowledge I have at this time on soldiering in general."

Reporter: "Your men have been accused by African nationalists of killing missionaries in this country. Have you any comment on this?"

Reid-Daly: "Yes, we don't like this sort of news at all. This is totally untrue, totally unjustified, and I think it's a very feeble attempt on behalf of the terrorists and their henchmen to switch the heat on us. We have a certain mystique, I must say, because we keep a very tight security on the unit. We don't like our African members in particular being known by face or name, and I think this has led to rumour-mongering and speculation, and this has been seized upon by the opposition as a very good means of covering up their own brutalities."

Reporter: "Major Reid-Daly, thank you."

Reid-Daly: "Thank you very much."

Note:

The Selous Scouts, which was multi-racial in membership, specialised in irregular warfare. Its methods included infiltration, assassination, abduction, torture, sabotage and blackmail.

It is also claimed to have practised psychological warfare. It was suspected of orchestrating "False Flag" operations designed to implicate and discredit the African guerrillas. One suspected incident concerns the aforementioned murder of European Roman Catholic Missionaries in 1977. Athough this attack and other attacks on missionaries were blamed on Black Nationalist groups, responsibility for the atrocities remain in doubt.

However, evidence that bomb attacks on churches were carried out by the unit in an attempt to discredit Black Nationalist organisations came in February 1980 after two members of the Scouts died when a bomb wrecked their car on Thursday, February 14th -the same night that three other bombs had been planted at Salisbury churches.

The Selous Scouts were effective in terms of eliminating Black Nationalist guerrillas. They had a "kill rate" which was far in excess of that of the regular Rhodesian Army. The unit was formed in 1973 and disbanded in 1980 when Rhodesia was re-constituted as Zimbabwe.

The unit's motto was "Pamwe Chete", which means "All Together" in the Shona language.

Selous Scouts Training | Rhodesian Army Special Forces Unit | Major Reid-Daly Interview | March 1977 [ Ссылка ]

The Selous Scouts and Rhodesia's "Dirty War": A Tale of False Flag Terror and War Crimes
[ Ссылка ]

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