Holy roller preachers, royalty, mediators flock to war

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 7

Holy roller preachers, royalty, mediators flock to war

NZPA Salisbury Spiritualists, soldiers of fortune, obscure royalty, pis-tol-packing preachers, and even bird-watchers are flocking to embattled Rhodesia. In spite of a gruesome guerrilla war. or perhaps because of it, the cast of characters is a psychological kaleidoscope. Many have staked out a new life in Rhodesia, where an enduring pioneering spirit seems to foster their idiosyncracies. Some are just passing through. All appear inured to a sixyear war which has cost more than 12,000 lives and threatens to escalate sharply m coming days as the country gears up for elections ■his month which will bring black majority rule after 90 years of white domination. Black guerrillas have pledged to sabotage the election, claiming that the blacks in the present transition Government are just ‘white stooges” and that the white minority will continue m hold real power behind the scenes. The prospect of more vio-

lence does not seem to|l bother, for example, the hul- : king Prince Leka of Albania. I He recently arrived with a small army of private body- i guards and his chief military advisor, Prince Wong of Burma. Prince Leka, about two metres tall, is the son of the deposed Albanian King Zog. ’ The prince arrived after ’ some unpleasantness in ’ Spain involving alleged illegal arms and unpaid debts. i He and his Australian- ! born wife have just leased a ; farm in the bush 50 km east ■ of Salisbury where he continues to plan the strategy • for the guerrilla army he ’ claims to have fighting for . him back in Communistt ruled Albania. [ There was another visit of , royalty just a few weeks- ’ ago. Princess Charlotte, aged 3 25, one of the Queen’s cou- , sins and a great-grand- ) daughter of the last Austrian emperor, left Lichtenstein e for a short visit to Rhodesia. . She has been linked roe mantically to the bachelor Rhodesian Minister of Fort eign Affairs (Mr Pieter van e der Byl). e Rhodesia has recently d played host to an Eskimo seal hunter on a world tour i- rnd to a New Zealand sheep

i farmer who just wanted to $ shake the hand of the Prime e Minister (Mr lan Smith). The Rev. Jim Dearmore, s of the Rodgers Baptist s Church in Garland, Texas, has visited and taken upjt residence to preach the gos-p pel with a pistol in his belt. If He was wounded in anti ambush late last year and It ■ vows revenge against the J guerrillas, whom he calls “mad dogs.” 1 Then there was the former i ■ United States Army Green ; i Beret who arrived to use hisit ; special forces experience in • Vietnam to set up Christian] i ’ guard units to defend out- < s lying missions. He could not seem top ■ round up enough volunteersl! . and has apparently drifted; i away. 1 H Martin Visser, aged 30, 1 was born in the former Bel-p - gian Congo, now called < ■ Zaire. He continues to farm i near the border with Mo--1 zambique, despite having mi- • raculously survived six land- ■ mine blasts. His body is r scarred, his face twisted, hist ■ ankles are deformed, and his 1 eardrums have been punctured. y When he is not farming, al he looks for guerrillas. He r I wants to shoot them and p collect the bounty — up to

$5200 — paid by the Government. He wears a T-shirt which says: “I am an endangered! species.” Heinrich Franck, aged 53, and his wife, Inge, arrived in Rhodesia three years ago from West Berlin and settled into a pretty cottage near the war, about 50km outside Salisbury. He spends his time painting birds from his huge aviary he keeps on his grounds. “This is our island (of peace,” he beams. Last November, 56 American teachers of transcenI dental meditation arrived to send out love waves to end I the war. They eventually (left. I Last month, Kumari Unia IBharti, aged 18, arrived on a solo mission as an apostle |of Indian gods and goddesses to intercede in the

fighting with a message of peace. There is still war, and she is gone. Rudi Giesswein of Bravnau, Austria, finds relaxation from the war in Rho- ; desian swamps. One of 40 falconers in the country, he daily sets his fierce birds of . prey on ducks and snipe. i “I love the thrill of the I hurit and a kill rounds off > the day nicely,” he says.