Troops don't fight for parties

Everyone wearing a military uniform has sworn allegiance to the constitution, not a political party.

- Brendan Seery

An image still seared in my memory, 40 years later - of a Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) Eland armoured car next to the burning hulk of a Soviet BDRM armoured personnel carrier it had just "shot out" - is an eloquent statement of impartial soldiering.

That Eland and other units had been called out to quell fighting in the Entumbane area of Bulawayo as guerillas loyal to Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo refused to integrated into a new military and, instead, were determined to wipe each other from the face of the earth.

The BDRM had rushed to the city in support of Nkomo's Zipra fighters and, given its warlike posture and attitude, it was taken out by the 90mm gun of the Eland.

The crew in the Eland were former members of the Rhodesian Army, but had sworn allegiance to the new government of the day. And when that government - of their erstwhile foe, Mugabe - called to stop an obvious insurrection, they responded.