Smith settlement under fire

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 8

Smith settlement under fire

NZPA-Reuter New York i African nations are due to. renew their attacks in the: United Nations Security! Council bn the Rhodesian; internal settlement as the United Nations awaits the appearance of principal figures in the dispute. Tanzania, Nigeria. Zambia, and Upper Volta all called for rejection of the internal settlement when the Security Council opened a debate on Rhodesia on Monday. “This deal is in reality an invitation to further violence and further bloodshed,” said the Tanzanian representative (Mr Salim Ahmed Salim): Nigeria, one of the Security Council’s three African members, drafted a tentative resolution condemning the settlement and urging all States to withold recognition.

Bishop Abel Muzorewa, one of the three black leaders who signed the settlement with the Rhodesian Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith), was expected in the

United States today from London.

Mr Joshua Nkomo, coleader of the Patriotic Front guerrilla organisation which denounced the Salisbury agreement, arrived in NewYork on Monday and is due to address the council later this week.

The front’s other leader, Mr Robert Mugabe, is also expected and council sources said it was possible that the British Foreign Secretary (Dr David Owen) might participate in the debate. The settlement plan reached by the Rhodesian Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith) and three nationalist leaders last week-end would bring war to the whole of Africa, a spokesman fori African nations said at the) opening session of the debate. The Upper Volta delegate (Mr Dimbon Bamba), chairman of the African group in the United Nations, said the Anglo-American settlement plan was “the only framework and the only basis for negotiations” leading to genuine majority rule.

Britain has declared it will not be rushed into passing a verdict on the settlement.

Despite heavy pressure from the Conservative Opposition, Dr Owen made clear that the Government was not going to endorse the settlement in a hurry. Earlier Bishop Muzerowa personally urged Dr Owen to back the settlement. Only the British Parliament can give the breakaway whiteruled colony legal independence and authorise the end of Britain’s economic sanctions against Rhodesia.

Mr Nkomo has said that he will probably have to ask Cuba for troops to help in I the guerrilla war against ißhodesia, according to an interview in “Newsweek” magazin » Asked if he would seek Cuban help during an interview in Lusaka last week, Mr Nkomo told the news weekly: “We are guerrilla fighters. But intensification means more men, more arms, more war. We are reluctant, but we have no alternative.”

! Mr Nkomo acknowledged 'that Rhodesian guerrilla i forces are receiving training lin the Soviet Union and I Cuba, along with military ! supplies from those two i countries.

Two black vegetable vendors have appeared in court charged with planting six bombs in the Rhodesian capital on Saturday, the day after the internal settlement was signed.

I Five of the bombs went off in mail boxes and litter i bins, but there were no caslualties. The two men were accused of six acts of terror- ; ism — an offence that cariries the death penalty. They I were remanded in custody |till March 20. i The public prosecutor (Mr .Mike Nicolaou) said that the bombs were sent to Salisbury by a terrorist group, which he did not identify. At the Inkomo Garrison in Rhodesia. seven black officers have been commissioned as the white-minority Government prepares for transition to black rule by the Snd of this year.