Mugabe tells U. S. he needs $4000M

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 6

Mugabe tells U. S. he needs $4000M

NZPA-Reuter New York The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (Mr Robert Mugabe) hopes to persuade President Carter today to provide.a substantial part of Zimbabwe’s foreign-aid requirements, which he estimates at more than $4OOO million over the next five years. The former guerrilla leader will hold talks with Mr Carter on his first visit to Washington since he was voted into power last March. He will also meet the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives and lunch with the Secretary of State (Mr Edmund Muskie). ■ . Mr Mugabe said in a speech to the Foreign Policy Association in New York yesterday that in addition to votes and civil liberties

which his people now enjoyed they needed concrete benefits like food, medicine, and education.

While recognising that the people of the United States faced their own economic difficulties, he appealed to them to use part of their resources in a common endeavour to bring these benefits.

In a later speech to the United Nations General Assembly, which on Monday accented Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, as its 153rd member, Mr Mugabe, appealed to countries that made generous promises during independence negotiations in London to match their words with concrete action.

After years of warfare and destruction, “the magnitude of the reconstruction and development task before us

is formidable and will, in real terms, amount to well over $4 billion within the next five years,” he said. State Department officials in Washington said the United States had already given Zimbabwe SUS2O million in grant assistance for immediate reconstruction needs and SUSS million for refugees. The Carter Administration is at present processing a SUSSO million housing guarantee loan and next year subject to congressional approval, plans to provide SUS2S million to SUS3O million in grant assistance. Mr Mugabe has made it clear in interviews that he would like considerably more United States assistance, but has not given a figure in public. Mr Mugabe will leave for London later today on his way home.