Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 15, January 1997

Ariel School landing: the headmaster closes the book (editorial follow-up)

1994 · Ariel School, Ruwa (the editorial says only 'a school not far from Harare'; the school is named in the book blurb on spread 23), Harare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

In her editorial on misreporting, Hind returns to the school landing near Harare. A German TV producer wanted to interview the headmaster and children; the head told Hind he had closed the book because the children were traumatised, some having nightmares and counselling, and eighteen months had passed. Hind said publicly that she respected his decision, yet a Bulawayo journalist wrote that the headmaster had stopped Hind's interviews, which offended him and spoiled their relationship; the journalist refused to correct it. A Belgian producer, Jan van Eetvelt of Bornem, later asked whether Hind and Prof John Mack had bribed the children with sweets to describe a craft landing beside the playground and two small men running about, as television had implied.

What Hind made of it

Hind respects the headmaster's decision as being in the children's interest, says the UAP experience will not go away, and is angry that the press twisted her words and that TV implied the children were bribed.

Explanation offered
suggestion that Hind and Mack bribed the children with sweets (rejected)

In their words

  • had closed the book on all interviews, because the children were traumatised and having nightmares and some were having counselling

    Cynthia Hind quoting her own words, spread 04

  • How else, asked Mr van Eetvelt, could they have told such a ridiculous story?

    Cynthia Hind reporting Jan van Eetvelt, spread 05

Cross references

  • Ariel School children, Ruwa (spread 23 book blurb)
  • Prof John E Mack, Harvard (spread 10)
  • Australian UAP Bulletin, September 1996 (Paul Norman, VUFORS)
  • Bulawayo talk and newspaper report

Connected

  • The Children of Ariel SchoolCase fileHind follow-up

    Editorial about eighteen months later: the headmaster closed the book because children were traumatised; a Bulawayo journalist misreported it; a Belgian producer asked whether Hind and Mack bribed the children with sweets. Geocoded at the Harare placeholder, not Ruwa.

  • Ariel School follow-up: the slow-motion beingsCase fileHind follow-up

    The same allegation answered twice: that Hind and Mack bribed the children with sweets. In No 15 it comes from Belgian producer Jan van Eetvelt; in No 20 from a 'Dutch television presenter'. Probably one Low Countries broadcast.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 15 (January 1997), spread 04-05

Nearby

Stories within 60 km