Some progress at Zurich talks

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 8

Some progress at Zurich talks

NZPA-Reuter Zurich The South African Prime Minister (Mr Vorster) ended three days of talks in Zurich yesterday with the U.S. Secretary of State (Dr Kissinger). Still undecided was whether Dr Kissinger would fly to southern Africa to begin negotiations between black and white leaders. He was waiting for an answer from the presidents of Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Mozambique after their summit meeting in Dar-es-Salaam. If they agreed they wanted Dr Kissinger to begin talks with the various parties in the black-white struggles of southern Africa immediately, then he would go today. American officials said Dr Kissinger and Mr Vorster have progressed toward easing the racial crisis in southern Africa. The talks were aimed at finding solutions to the South West Africa and Rhodesian questions. Dr Kissinger and Mr Vorster have named working committees to lay out details of a process aimed at closing the gap with black African leaders. Mr Vorster also said a peaceful solution in Rhodesia could still be achieved. He denied he had any right or intention to directly pressure the Rhodesian Prime Minister (Mr Smith) to turn

over power to the black majority in his country. Rather, he went on, his role was to create a climate “. . . that will make peace possible.” Vorster rejected suggestions that his country, Rhodesia’s only outlet to the outside world, might force Mr Smith to his knees by closing off deliveries of arms or other supplies. “South Africa does not believe in sanctions and South Africa does not believe in hovcotts,” he said. But while insisting his country would not put pressure on Mr Smith, he added: “We can find out alternatives, we can point out realities, we can advise. That is as far as I went in the past and that is as far as I am prepared to go in the future.” Mr Vorster appears to be growing impatient with Mr Smith, who, while favouring eventual black majority rule, has repeatedly delayed the process of transferring power from Rhodesia’s 250,000 whites to its six million blacks.

In Nairobi, Kenya, the United Nations Commissioner for Namibia (Mr Sean MacBride), said yesterday he was sceptical of Dr Kissinger’s diplomatic manoeuvres on South West Africa’s independence. “He will not make headway in his talks without the presence and participation of the Namibians themselves,” he said.