Britain biased at talks, black guerrillas say

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 8

Britain biased at talks, black guerrillas say

NZPA-Reuter London jt f Britain's neutrality’ as' chairman of the Zimbabwe f Rhodesian peace conference t has been challenged as the i talks entered their fourth: i iweek. !< ! Patriotic Front guerrilla's {sources said Britain’s posi- I ■lion was suspect as negotiations approached on the con- 1 itrol of the armed forces dur-!< ling the transition to black-If majority rule. {e “We suspect Britain of I favouring the Muzorewa 1 Government," one front J source said. “It (the Muzo--< rewa Government) is more c to their liking.” ■' The Patriotic Front ac- f cused the black Prime Minister (Bishop Abel Muzorewa) ( of merely being a front for is

continued white rule in Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The guerrillas believed the former white Prime Minister, Mr lan Smith, was still in control, and that the biracial coalition he helped to create enjoyed the general support of the British, the Patriotic Front source said. The guerrillas preferred to have the United Nations oversee the transition to fresh one-man, one-vote elections. “Britain dumped the problem in the lap of the United Nations in 1965 when Smith declared unilateral independence, so it should stick with that,” a prominent front source said: Britain has proposed that Commonwealth forces oversee the interim period, but

-Ithe front sources said the 'terrorists believed that the eiUnited Nations had both the -experience and the machl|inery to do the job, with -1 Commonwealth assistance if )(necessary. I; “What we can’t agree to,” : I the sources said, “is Britain looking after things on 5| its own. Britain likes to pres i tend to the world it is a dis- ) interested party, but we all ; know it is deeply involved las the colonial Power.” Agreement is near on a :1 new black-rule constitution i‘which would strip Zimbabwe' -(Rhodesia's 230,000 whites of <. their remaining privileges, t but the thorny problem of J implementing that con-1 . stitution remains to be set-1 tjtled.