U.S. senators may force end to Rhodesia sanctions

Press, 14 May 1979, Page 8

U.S. senators may force end to Rhodesia sanctions

NZPA-Reuter Washington! A United States senator. ! Jesse Helms, has said hen will ask the Senate this! I week to vote for the United States to lift the economic! sanctions against the new!, bi-racial Government in. Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, which ■; were imposed by the United I j Nations. Senator Helms, a North! Carolina Republican, said hep intended to act tomorrow. "Our head count looks pretty good,” Senator Helms said in a telephone interview. “It depends on how much lobbying the Administration can do in the mean- ‘ time.” President Carter’s Administration has been trying to < delay a decision. Senator Helms said that in ’ the House of Representa- 1 tives there were more than i enough votes to lift the sanctions. Since the proposal! ;

iis in the form of an amend-1 ment to the bill apropriating, | funds for the State Department, it would be hard for the President to veto. Mr Carter has promised j i that he will decide by midi June whether to accept the' recent election in Rhodesia i as free and open enough to I justify ending the sanctions. ! Two Democratic senators, j Edward Kennedy, of Massjachusetts, and George McGo- | vern, of South Dakota, are i working actively to keep them, on the ground that lifting them would damage United States relations with black Governments in Africa. There is also strong pressure from organisations of American blacks to keep the sanctions. I Senator Helms and others want to take action against them even before Mr Carter makes up his mind. A vote in the Senate to- ; morrow would coincide with

the arrival in the United] i States of Mr Joshua Nkomo,| I whi> heads one of the two] guerrilla groups opposed to, i the Government. He is ex-1 ipectsd to stay for at least a week and to 'make a stop in ' 'Washington. Mr Nkomo will use his influence to see that the United States continues the sanctions. Since lifting them would give a big psychological boost to the new Salisbury Government scheduled to be installed at the end of the month under Bis-f hop Abel Muzorewa. Mr Nkomo is also sched-' uled to appear at a conference of the African-Ameri-can Institute in Houston, ( Texas, and to accept an ; honorary degree from Morehouse College, in Atlanta, ] Georgia. Mr Carter’s Adminis- ' tration and the British Government tried unsuccessfully to get the guerrilla leaders to take part in the election. !