After the already tense relations between ZANU–PF and ZAPU disintegrated amid Mugabe's wish to adopt a one-party system in Zimbabwe, Mugabe expelled Nkomo from the government in February 1982, accusing him and ZAPU of plotting a coup. About a year later, Mugabe deployed the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade to Matabeleland, ZAPU's heartland, where it massacred thousands of civilians accused of supporting "dissidents" in what came to be called "Gukurahundi". Meredith asserts that this far exceeded anything that had occurred during the Bush War, an opinion shared by Geoff Hill. Some white farmers were also killed. Estimates for the number of deaths during the five-year "Gukurahundi" campaign range from 10,000 to 30,000. Mugabe concurrently took steps to marginalise the other main black nationalist leaders from the "Chimurenga". Nkomo fled to the UK in March 1983, fearing for his life; Sithole similarly exiled himself in the United States. Muzorewa stayed in Zimbabwe and was detained in late 1983 for alleged "subversive links" with South Africa. On arriving in England, Nkomo accused Mugabe of genocide and asserted that "Things are worse now than they ever were under Ian Smith". Mugabe denied that anything improper was happening and put reports to the contrary down to "reactionary foreign journalists".