Blacks, whites settle 4in principle’ on new Constitution

Press, 27 January 1978, Page 5

Blacks, whites settle 4 in principle’ on new Constitution

International

NZPA-Reuter

Salisbury

\\ hite and black Rhodesian leaders are studying detailed plans for a multi-racial government designed to carry Rhodesia to black-majority rule.

Informed sources said on| Wednesday night that the! Prime Minister (Mr lanj Smith) and the leaders ofl three Rhodesia-based black' nationalist parties had made) an important breakthrough in their internal settlement | negotiations. agreeing in! principle on a new Con-1 stitution for the country.: The way was now clear fori an interim multi-racial government to prepare for one-! man. one-vote elections! among the country’s 6.5 mil-: lion blacks and 268,000 : whites. Nationalist sources in | Salisbury said that all key! questions of political! safeguards for whites in a! black majority-ruled Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) had been settled. I'he black nationalist leaders taking part in the talks with Mr Smith’s white Administration are Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau. The talks, by-passing An-glo-American proposals for a settlement, excluded the Patriotic Front, political! •voice of nationalist guer-i rillas based outside Rhodesia! who are conducting a war: for independence on their! terms. Britain, responsible for ap-i proving any final settlement! in the breakawav colony, be-! lieves any package which! fails to involve all the par-! ties concerned, as envisaged) in the Anglo-American pro-1 posals. is unlikely to gain j international acceptance.) according to informed! sources in London. Party leaders taking part) in the Salisburv discussions) were anxious to produce |; some concrete evidence of! success before the British! Foreign Secretary (Dr David) Owen) meets the foreign-) based guerrilla leaders in Malta on Monday in an at-! tempt to breathe new life)! into the faltering Anglo-! American settlement plan. The front has spurned the

j internal initiative, accusing) I the blacks taking part in the! i talks of being “puppets of i the white regime." It has ipledged the guerrilla war, i which in five years has : j claimed more than 6600 j lives, will continue despite (any agreement in Salisbury, i Mr Smith told reporters ion Wednesday he believed! ) that in the long run an internal settlement would! I bring the fighting to an end,!: ialthough he expected an up-, isurge in “terrorism” in the) I short-term aimed at wreck-! ling any internal deal, ) Bishop Muzorewa and Mr .Sithole say they have considerable support among the I guerrillas anf that once a black government is agreed on, the fighting will cease. Mr Smith said the two clerics and Chief Chirau commanded the loyalty of 90 per cent of black Rhodesians. The Patriotic Front, he declared, was “irrelevant.” In a statement before answering questions, Mr Smith noted that Dr Owen was due to meet the Patriotic Front next week, i “One can anticipate that, from his own motives, he j (Dr Owen) will join in an (unholy alliance with the Patriotic Front in an effort to .discredit the internal leaders )and any agreement they may reach,” Mr Smith said. : “I believe Dr Owen is I sadly misreading the realities of the situation in Rhodesia,” he said. “The black ! leaders will speak for themi selves but J would say the (people of Rhodesia as a (whole are in no mood to I have foisted on them leaders 1 i chosen by outsiders or a (settlement dictated by out[siders.” He said he thought there ] (was a “growing awareness : j throughout responsible coun- ! (tries in the world that in the : end w’e have got to have a I (settlement of the Rhodesian (issue.” ! He quoted the United i [States Ambassador in Lon-j< don (Mr Kingman Brewster) s

las saying recently that as I far as the United States was concerned, it did not matter who produced a settlement as long as it was correct, and fair. “I believe we will be able to produce the genuine article, in which case I’m satisfied we will be able to (gain recognition from the rest of the world — from the free world,” Mr Smith! (said. The main thrust of the ‘ Prime Minister’s statement (was directed against the i hard-line Rhodesian Action Party, which opposed the present talks. The R.A.P. intends to fight the Government in the referendum Mr Smith has promised to seek white approval of any settlement reached. Mr Smith heatedly defended his Government’s recent introduction of censorship on news reports relating to . the security situation. “We are at war,” he declared. The Government two weeks ago banned press reports of security and s e c u r i t y-related matters unless as contained in official communiques or reported in Parliament or the courts. Any additional material must be cleared by military censors. Dr Owen, speaking a few hours after Mr Smith, said that he saw no hope for al Rhodesian settlement which, excluded foreign-based nationalist guerrilla groups. i He told the British Parliament that a settlement which left out one of the leading nationalist groups could “not give peace or stability to an independent Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).” “Nor would it eliminate the threat to international peace and security, and therefore would be most unlikely to be recognised by the (United Nations) Security Council.” he added. The Government secretary J said,'however, that he would I not frustrate a peaceful (settlement from whatever source it came.