Former P.M. quits as party’s leader

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 6

Former P.M. quits as party’s leader

NZPA-Reuter Harare

The former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Mr lan Smith, suspended from Parliament last month, said yesterday he had resigned as head of the white opposition party he has led since the country became independent Zimbabwe under black rule.

But Mr Smith, aged 68, said he would continue to be active in politics. Mr Smith’s party, the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe, took over from the • Rhodesian Front which, with Mr Smith at its head, led a white settler rebellion against British plans for majority rule. 1 Mr Smith was susJ pended from Parliament for a year after a visit to Johannesburg where he urged South Africans to unite against international sanctions.

Explaining his resignation, he told Reuters: “I was motivated by the Government’s vindictive action in deceitfully associating the white electorate with remarks I made about sanctions.” He said the Prime Minister’s Government had exploited his words to cast doubt on the loyalty of Zimbabwe’s 100,000 whites. Although Mr Robert Mugabe has signalled his

intention to abolish separate Parliamentary seats for whites, probably before Mr Smith’s suspension expires, the former Prime Minister said yesterday: “I am still a member of Parliament.”

Mr Smith, who has been a member of Parliament for 39 years, said: “I shall continue to do what I have always done. I have just pulled out of the leadership of the party.”

He said he had told his party caucus on March 11 of his decision to step down. He became leader of the Rhodesian Front in 1962. Three years later he unilaterally declared

independence from Britain and vowed to block majority rule until his death. He defied international economic sanctions against Rhodesia for 15 years until forced by guerrilla war and pressure from South Africa, the rebel settlers’ chief ally, to negotiate with black leaders. A Rhodesian Government attempt to forge an alliance with moderate black leaders failed to end a guerrilla war for majority rule.

In 1979, Britain called a constitutional conference which resulted in the Lancaster House agreement that opened the way for independence the next year. Since independence, Mr Smith has been accused by the Govern? ment of refusing to accept black rule and the official policy of reconciliation with whites. Zimbabwe’s present rulers, many of them jailed for years by Mr Smith for political reasons,* blame the former white leader for the deaths of thousands of blacks during his rule. Mr Smith said yesterday he had resigned to prevent further Government "harassment” -of Zimbabwe’s white minority.