Rhodesian Govt may be ready to alter stand

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 9

Rhodesian Govt may be ready to alter stand

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury The white Rhodesian ' Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith) is expected to say: today whether the transi-l tional Government is pre-; 1 pared to attend talks with? its guerrilla opponents of! the Patriotic Front. Mr Smith is due to make a speech in Bulawayo after a statement on Thursday byChief Jeremiah Chirau. one of the black leaders in the transitional Government, that he supports an all-i party conference on the fut-’ ure of Rhodesia. Speculation that Mr Smith will make an important policy statement has heightened because the attitudes of Chief Chirau’s Zimbabwe United People’s Organisation have in the past been closely aligned with those of the white Prime Minister’s Rhodesian Front party. But white sources close to the Government said they had no advance knowledge of Mr Smith’s speech. In the Thursday statement, I Chief Chirau said: “African political leaders are supposed to represent the will of the people and we of ■ Z.U.P.0., embodying as we do both the political and traditional leadership, fee! it is mow our duty to take a ' stand and support the idea of an all-party conference.” Britain and the United States, which have been attempting to bring the transitional Government to the table with its Patriotic Front foes, are hoping that the conference can be held later, this month.

The Patriotic F ront leaders, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, have already agreed in principle. However, the transitional Government has so far been cool, and a decision now to attend would be a marked change in its policy. Chief Chirau said that the biracial transitional Government would not lose control of the country as the result of a conference. “It does not mean that we will go back in any way on matters that have already? been agreed.” the chief said. He added that one of Z.U.I P.O.’s aims was to end the guerrilla war. “If the all-i party conference can achieve! this'then we would be neg-.’ lecting our duty by not calling for a conference." Most reluctance towards an all-party conference has come from' another nationalist in the transitional Government, Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Branch delegates of the bishop’s United African National Council last week-, end rejected the Anglol American call. But the third nationalist in the coalition, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, returned from London last week-end and said that the talks were “a possibility.” Meanwhile, striking black miners at the Mangula copper mine, where four men were shot dead by the police on Tuesday, have returned to work, a police spokesman has said. | ' The spokesman said there I was a full return to work On (the Thursday morning shift I after the management agreed ■to negotiate.