Kissinger’s shuttle starts badly

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 5

Kissinger’s shuttle starts badly

NZPA-Reuter

Dar-es-Salaam

The United States Secretary of State ( Dr Henry Kissinger i and President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania have ended the first round of Dr Kissinger’s African peace shuttle with expressions of pessimism about the prospects of its success.

President Nyerere said I the American Secretary,] reporting on his meeting. 10 days ago with the; South African Prime Minister (Mr John Vorster), had told him nothing encouraging about the chances of a settlement in either Rhodesia or Namibia (South-West Africa). Dr Kissinger was only slightly less pessimistic when he told a press conference that the chances for the success of his mission were] less than 50-50. He added: “There are several coinciding views. There] are several sharply differing] views. “The question that we face] in the next week is whethet ] the differing views can be bridged — if there were not some possiblity of bridging these views, we would not have undertaken the journey,” Dr Kissinger said. "It is clear that a conflict that has gone on for so many years, and has such a long history, has created profound distrust; and so many efforts have failed, that the parties are becoming more and more committed to the process of struggle rather

|; than to the process of negotiation.” President Nyerere said he ■[had heard nothing from Dt ‘ Kissinger indicating that (South Africa accepted . S.W.A.P.O. (the South-West Africa People’s Organisation) as the sole representative of - the Namibian people — a key • demand of the front-line ! States. On the Rhodesian issue, President Nyerere said “1 would have been encouraged if I had been told that the Rhodesian Prime Minister, i lan Smith is willing to accept . majority rule, at the very least under the plan announced by the British Prime Minister. James Callaghan, i “I haven’t heard anything lof the kind.” , He said it would be a ,] “miracle” if Mr Smith agreed '] to majority rule within two years. I Despite his pessimism. l ] President Nyerere said Dr Kissinger’s mission would not have been useless if it ' demonstrated to the United States the intransigence of the Rhodesian and South African Governments. “I hope this shuttle, if it > does not end in a negotiated i settlement, and therefore the • war has to go on, at least ' will make the United States ( understand that the fighting ( in southern Africa has noth- ( ing to do with communism,” ■ the Tanzanian leader said.

Dr Kissinger yesterday left Tanzania for Zambia, where his visit coincides with a power struggle among black Rhodesian nationalists and a new public militancy among Zambian leaders.

The nationalists, grouped in at least four factions, are jostling for power in the hope, however remote, that if the Rhodesian whites relinquish power, the winner of the struggle will be in a position to inherit it.

Zambia, disillusioned with the failure of its detente policy with South Africa, is voicing increasingly bellicose support for guerrilla war as the only way to end white dominance in Rhodesia and Namibia. President Kenneth Kaunda, once regarded as a moderate among the black African States ranged against Rhodesia, has said he will do nothing to obstruct the U.S. Secretary of State’s efforts. Bur Dr Kaunda. backed by the liberation groups, has stated that black Africa has no intention of silencing the guerrillas’ guns while Dr Kissinger is seeking the peaceful end to white minority rule in Rhodesia and Namibia.

After a day of discussions with President Kaunda, he plans to leave for South Africa today and may return to Lusaka on Sunday night or Monday morning.