Mugabe warns Britain

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 9

Mugabe warns Britain

NZPA-Reuter Brussels The Zimbabwe Rhodesia Patriotic Front guerrilla coleader, Mr Robert Mugabe, 1 has warned Britain against I using what he called i “devious schemes” to deprive the front of power. | He told a press conference ■ in Brussels that the Patriotic ; Front’s demand for partici- • pation in the security forces of the breakaway British colony during the transition to independence was a prerequisite for a settlement in {Zimbabwe Rhodesia, “There must be no devious schemes from Britain to weigh the scales against us and favour the internal regime (of Bishop Abel Muzorewa),” he said. In London, talks between j the Patriotic Front, Bishop i Muzorewa’s Salisbury reigime, and Britain were in ! recess for the week-end bej fore entering their fourth (week today.

Mr Mugabe, in Brussels to j meet a local Zimbabwe i solidarity group, said the London conference would have to agree on transitional measures to independence before there could be any settlement.

He said agreement was near on a constitution for Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and talks on interim measures should begin this week.

Both combatants in the seven-year-bush war in Zimbabwe Rhodesia have agreed

with Britain at the conference that a new constitution should guarantee the

nation’s 230,000 whites — 4 per cent of the population — 20 per cent of the seats in an independent Parliament.

The crux of the London conference is likely to come this week when transitional measures are discussed. The main problem is who will control the armed forces — the key to who wields real power in the switch to legal independence and possibly in a new Zimbabwe nation.

Bishop Muzorewa, dependent on the mainly whiteofficered Government security forces, has said he will not even discuss the issue, and that the position of his forces is not negotiable. The guerrillas say the present Government forces should be confined to barracks during a transitional period, only “acceptable elements” joining the Patriotic I Front forces in a joint military force under United Nations supervision. Mr Mugabe said that while in Brussels he had also met the Common Market Development Commissioner (Mr Caluse Cheysson) and discussed possible Common Market aid for refugee camps in countries which are neighbours of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. He said he hoped to meet the Belgian Foreign Minister (Mr Henri Simonet) before returning to London.