General asked U.K. to block Mugabe election

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 9

General asked U.K. to block Mugabe election

NZPA-Reuter London The former Zimbabwe military commander, Peter Walls, has told a 8.8. C. television interviewer that he pressed the British 'to declare null and void the elections which swept Robert Mugabe to power in Zimbabwe. The 56-year-old white officer, who quit as Zimbabwe high command chairman suddenly last month, said he had made his request to the British Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) after the election but before the result was announced. He said Mrs Thatcher ignored his plea. “I won’t forgive her for that,”' Lieutenant-General Walls said. “I would like at least to have had the courtesy of a reply.” He said that he suggested to Mrs. Thatcher that she should annul the election result, “because of various factors, and rule through a council of Ministers.”

According to a preview of the interview issued by the 8.8. C., General Walls said that Mr Mugabe’s election victory had been a result of intimidation. “I am not criticising Mr Mugabe particularly for it,” he said. . “I think that every African leader practises intimidation through his followers, and his was a damn sight better than anyone else’s.” The 8.8. C. said the interview was conducted last Friday at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, where General Walls was on a fishing holiday. Asked about , his own resignation and those of an estimated 60 per cent of white officers and non-com-missioned officers, General Walls said: “I think that is because they don’t want to stay under present political conditions.” He also said: “I don’t think the country is going to be any more- stable than it is now until we have gone through the rapids, and Then

it will'either go up or it will go down.” General Walls was also asked about the possibility of a civil war in Zimbabwe.

“I would not say it is a probability now but it is a distinct possibility,” he said. Mrs Thatcher’s office refused to comment on General Walls’s interview. In another exercise which i it is hoped will boost Zim- : babwe’s fragile unity, Zimbabwe’s leaders and people will honour two top guerrilla leaders from both wings of the now defunct Patriotic Front guerrilla movement today during the new national Heroes’ Day holiday. A State funeral will be held for Josiah Tongogara, leader of Mr Mugabe’s forces, who died in a car i crash in Mozambique last December, and Jason Moyo l from the guerrilla army led by the Home Affairs Minister (Mr Joshua Nkomo). Mr Moyo was killed in a parcelbomb explosion in Lusaka in i January, 1977. '