Three Africans hanged in Salisbury

Salisbury: Three condemned African murderers were hanged today in Salisbury prison in defiance of reprieves granted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.

They were executed at 9 am local ( 07- 00 GMT, 12- 30 IST) after all legal measures to save them from the gallows had failed.

Notices announcing that the executions had been carried out were posted on the heavy grey wooden door of the Maximum security prison about 40 minutes afterwards.

The men were Victor Dhlamini, convicted of killing a white farmer with a petrol bomb in 1964, and Duly Shadreck, condemned for the murder of a tribal chief.

Their last- minute appeals for clemency were rejected after a meeting yesterday of the Executive Council of Prime Minister Ian Smith’s Cabinet ministers.

Their hanging was the strongest challenge yet to the British government by the breakaway white- ruled colony.

It plunged Britain and Rhodesia into their biggest head- on clash since the unilateral declaration of independence here in November 1965.

New of their execution came in brief, typewritten notices posted outside the heavy grey gates of the prison, two miles ( 3 km) down the broad highway winding to Salisbury’s rich northern suburbs.

Identical except for the name and place of sentencing, they said.

“This is to certify that the sentence of death passed upon ( and here the place where the court sat) was duly carried out at Salisbury prison this sixth day of March.”

The three Africans were the first to be executed in Rhodesia since Prime Minister Smith broke away from Britain.

Over 100 Africans are under sentence of death in the country.