UK downplayed killings in Zimbabwe to guard interests: Study
British officials downplayed the massacre of thousands of dissidents by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the 1980s to protect the UK's interests in southern Africa, a new study has claimed. In 1983, Mugabe's Fifth Brigade allegedly killed, tortured and raped 10,000 to 20,000 unarmed civilians in retaliation for murders and attacks by supporters of his political rival Joshua Nkomo.