Todd lashes Govt

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 8

Todd lashes Govt

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury The former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Mr Garfield Todd, has lashed out at Rhodesian security forces and the country’s multi-racial transitional Government after the Saturday massacre of 22 black civilians in a village north of Salisbury. He said the three black nationalist members of the supreme Executive Council — Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau — had been unable to in-

fluence what he called the racial policies of the Rhodesian Front led by the Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith,) or its military strategy. Mr Todd was applauded loudly by his multi-racial, audience at a lunch-time meeting of the Liberal national Unifying Force. The main thrust of his remarks on security forces’ conduct was extensively censored for publication at home or abroad by the military authorities. Mr Todd, who was Prime

Minister of Southern Rhodesia from 1953 to 1958 and was held under house arrest by Mr Smith’s Government from 1972 until 1976, declared that the killing of the 22 highlighted “the fundamental sickness of this country: There is no respect for black people or their rights.” After an Executive Council meeting on Tuesday one political source said, “I believe the killings were not discussed. If they were it was only in a sketchy way.”