Botha: no peaceful solution

Press, 29 July 1977, Page 5

Botha: no peaceful solution

NZPA - Reuter London The South African Foreign Minister (Mr Pik Botha) said in a newspaper interview published yesterday that there could no longer be a completely peaceful solution to the Rhodesian problem. “The Times” quoted Mr Botha as saying that the biggest single obstacle to a settlement in Rhodesia was the absence of a single identifiable group which could show it had the support of the majority. The newspaper said: “He criticised the British Government for trying to lean over backwards to please the men with the guns. “Britain, he said, must decide whether it wanted to see a solution based on the traditional British principles of free and open elections, or whether it was merely seeking a mechanism tc placate the men with guns. In the interview, held in Pretoria, a correspondent, Nicholas Ashford, said that Mr Botha was “of the opinion that Britain, the United States and the black ‘frontline’ States have been responsible for the failure to reach a peaceful solution, rather than Mr lan Smith, the Rhodesian leader.”