U.K. tells foreign forces to stay out of Rhodesia

Press, 23 February 1980, Page 8

U.K. tells foreign forces to stay out of Rhodesia

NZPA London The British Government has issued a warning against any foreign intervention in Rhodesia after next week’s independence election.

The warning followed reports,, apparently from South African military sources, suggesting that their country’s troops would be ready to intervene if civil war breaks out after the election. A Foreign Office statement said: “We have always made clear that we do not wish to see any external intervention in Rhodesia. “We deprecate any statement which holds out the prospect of such intervention.”

A spokesman said the British mission in South Africa would be seeking to establish the exact position. Amnesty International has said that- human rights are being violated in Rhodesia under British authority where law enforcement remains largely in the hands of the same Rhodesian officials who were responsible for torture and secret executions under the former illegal administration.

The international humanrights organisation announced that it had cabled Lord Soames, Governor of Rhodesia, expressing alarm at the relatively free rein left to the Rhodesian administration to maintain law and order on their own terms. Amnesty pointed out that people were still being ar-

rested under the martial-law procedures of the former illegal government, others were seized and held incommunicado under 30-day detention orders, and people imprisoned on political grounds under the former government were still being held.

The organisation noted that Lord Soames had declined to issue a clear ban on torture, despite evidence that torture had been widespread under the detention procedures still in use. Amnesty said the Governor’s refusal to grant the International Red Cross access to martial-law _ detainees and political prisoners exactly paralleled the attitude of previous Rhodesian administrations. It called on him to ensure that people arrested were either released or charged. •In Salisbury, the Rhodesian authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts of 96 guerrillas arrested five weeks ago, prompting charges from Robert Mu'gabe’s political party that they had been murdered. The guerrillas were part of a group of 119 detained in the Belingwe Tribal Trust Land (African reserve) near Shabani on January 14 while travelling to Salisbury to hear Mr Mugabe speak at a political rally.

In a sworn affidavit filed in the High Court, the office of the Government attorney released the names of the 119 but would give the whereabouts of only 22 of them,- saying 15 were in Fort Victoria prison and seven in Gwelo prison. It added that it did not know the exact whereabouts of all the others and was not prepared to disclose that information where it was known. Meanwhile, charges have been dropped against Mr Mugabe’s party spokesman, Justin Nyoka, who appeared in court in Salisbury yesterday charged with making inflammatory statements at an illegal political rally in Shabani last month. A police spokesman said later it was a case of mistaken identity. Mr Nyoka’s arrest prompted Mr Mugabe’s election director, Eddison Zvobgo, to complain of systematic harassment of his party.

In one of a series of recent incidents in which authorities have cracked down on the Marxist-ori-entated party, three Mugabe party candidates, including Mr Zvobgo’s wife, Julia, were arrested last week and charged with sheltering guerrillas.

The High Court in Salisbury yesterday ordered the three to be released from Saturday on a total of $l5OO bail each. In London, the Commonwealth Secretary-General (Sir Shridath Ramphal) is to seek a meeting with Lord Carrington to express a “crisis of confidence” felt in the Commonwealth at the situation in Rhodesia. Sir Shridath was instructed to take this action after a meeting of more than 30 Commonwealth high commissioners in London this week.'

According to Commonwealth officials the Foreign Secretary will be asked to order Lord Soames “to restore a balance” between the parties in the country as set out in the Lancaster House agreement. In New York, informed sources have said that a top United Nations official is expected to fly to Rhodesia to witness next week’s election a. personal representative of the Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim). Javier Perez de Cueller, who was Peru’s United Nations ambassador from 1971 to 1975, has served as a United Nations Under-Sec-retary-General for special political affairs for the last year.