Two Sides of a Stalemate

Prime Minister Ian Smith proceeded last week with his grand plan for solving the Rhodesian crisis--on his own terms. First, he aims to win the country's Aug. 31 elections in order to head off a threat to his government from a new, right-wing splinter group (TIME, Aug. 1). Then, with his mandate reinforced, he hopes to create a moderate, multiracial government in Rhodesia that would include both whites and some conservative black nationalists--but not leaders of the radical Patriotic Front with its guerrilla army.

Smith no longer feels committed to achieving black majority rule by 1978. "That was part of the package deal we made with [then Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger in Pretoria last year," he told TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter last week. "That package deal, which included the cessation of terrorism and an end to sanctions, has been thrown out the window, not by the Rhodesian government but by the other parties."

Thus Smith is pressing ahead with his own plan for a multiracial government. He believes it can eventually defeat the nationalist guerrillas and provide the kind of constitutional guarantees that will reassure the country's 270,000 whites and inspire them to remain. Otherwise, said Smith, "I don't believe the white man is going to stay. If civilization goes out the window, the white man goes out the door."

The Prime Minister archly dismissed the British and American argument that any future Rhodesian government must include representatives of the Patriotic Front ("I'm right and they're wrong"). Once he has achieved what he calls an "internal settlement," Smith argues, "the guerrillas' support from the ground will fall away." But won't Rhodesian blacks demand to be in charge of their own affairs? "We will have to wait and see," Smith told McWhirter. "Maybe the most optimistic expectations are not going to coincide with practical realities of life."

The trouble with Smith's plan is that black Africa will not buy it. Across the Zambezi River in Lusaka, TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief David Wood talked with two of the black leaders most concerned with achieving a Rhodesian settlement: Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda, one of Africa's most respected leaders, and Joshua Nkomo, perhaps the best known of the Rhodesian nationalists and co-leader (with Robert Mugabe) of the Patriotic Front.

Kaunda, once an advocate of nonviolence, explained why he allows the Patriotic Front to operate training and staging camps for an estimated 3,000 guerrillas in his country, and why he is convinced that only military force can bring majority rule to Rhodesia's 6.2 million blacks. Nkomo reaffirmed that his followers will accept nothing less than real majority rule in Rhodesia--or Zimbabwe, as the nationalists call it --on the basis of one man, one vote.

The interviews:

Kaunda: 'I See No Settlement'

Q. Two years ago, when you met Ian Smith and South African Prime Minister John Vorster at Victoria Falls, a peaceful negotiated settlement in Rhodesia seemed possible. Now there is a state of war. What went wrong?

A. There have been all sorts of negotiations--on battleships, on railroad bridges, everywhere. We have followed the Organization of African Unity [O.A.U.] Manifesto on Southern Africa, which says that we must do everything possible to negotiate for a transfer of power from the minority to the majority, and only when this fails should we decide to fight. But everything has failed, all due to the intransigence of Smith. Up to about a year ago, we thought there was a possibility of change. Then we realized that this man was just playing with words. So we have taken up arms to fight for freedom and justice for all, regardless of color.

Q. Is there now no chance for peace?

A. I can see no peaceful settlement at all. It is finished.

Q. The O.A.U. supports the Patriotic Front, at the expense of such other Rhodesian nationalists as Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole. Doesn't that increase the chance of civil war among black nationalist factions in Rhodesia?

A. Muzorewa and Sithole are talking about electing leaders in Zimbabwe. How? Elections are controlled by Smith. The first thing now is to fight those rebels [the Smith regime]. Once we defeat them, that is the time for elections. The Patriotic Front is not a closed shop at all. Anybody who is prepared to face facts and fight now is welcome, whether he is a bishop or a reverend with a collar, as my father was. But whoever wants an election now is wrong.

Q. Given the aid supplied to the Patriotic Front guerrillas by China and the Soviet Union, do you fear that an independent Zimbabwe will have difficulty remaining nonaligned?

A. Yes, that is going to be a problem, and we have the West to thank for that. Long ago I told the Americans that if the West was not careful, it would find itself fighting against black people in southern Africa because, according to the West, the blacks were supporting Communism. Western civilization is based on Christian love. The racists, the fascists in southern Africa are the opposite, but they do what they do in your name, and the black masses begin to consider Western civilization as racist and fascist. Africans have turned to the only people who support their case voluntarily, the Eastern countries, the Chinese and the Soviets. And because the guns come from the Eastern countries, they'll need training, and so, of course, some people who are so trained will become Marxists.

Q. What should the West do now?

A. The West must choose between investment and human life. If it chooses human life, let it withdraw its heavy investments that support [the white regimes in] southern Africa. I like to believe the West can salvage what is already half lost. We give the situation in South Africa three years, and then it is bound to explode unless certain changes have taken place. But this is not a case of Communists telling South Africans what to do, or of Marxists telling the people of Zimbabwe they are oppressed. There is no need for that: it is obvious.

Q. Do you believe that there is a danger that Communism will take hold in southern Africa?

A. Yes, there might be. But, my dear brother, oppressed people are fighting everywhere, the world is on the move. Anyone who thinks he can replace one type of oppression with another does not understand the meaning of history or the soul of man. There is a God-ordained move toward freedom--spiritual, moral, physical and material. Man is going to be free.

Q. You have been a disciple of nonviolence and used it effectively in your own struggle for national independence. Have you forsworn nonviolence?

A. Gandhi himself said that if he had to choose between nonviolence and freedom, he would choose the latter. I agree with him entirely. Slavery is a violation of human life. We have done everything possible for a nonviolent solution, and we have failed. When Jesus found people defiling the synagogue, he whipped them. A violent situation cannot be solved by the nonviolent method.

Nkomo: 'War Is The Only Course'

Q. Why is it that you believe that war is the way to majority rule in Rhodesia?

A. A long time ago I decided that the only way to solve our problems was to get people to become voters, and I decided to become active in politics. But we discovered that the government wouldn't even respond to our entreaties. We have total war now because it is the only course open to us.

Q. Will there be anything left of the country by the time the war ends?

A. We are not engaged in massive property destruction, and we believe the struggle should be soldier-to-soldier combat. But a lot of people have been killed, ordinary African men, women and children attacked by the [Rhodesian] Selous Scouts, who try to terrorize the population into not supporting the freedom fighters. Two days ago, 23 people were burned in their huts, and the Rhodesians said the freedom fighters did it and pointed to the Communist-made weapons. But you know a weapon responds to any finger.

Q. Do you have any hope for the Anglo-American peace efforts?

A. The British know the right thing to do. Smith is a rebel, and they should do what they did in America--line the rebels up against the wall and shoot them.

Q. What exactly do you have against the British peace effort?

A. They want to discuss a constitution, with universal suffrage, a bill of rights, an independent judiciary--which we also want--as if this were a normal colonial situation. It is not, it is war. What will be the power base, the security base for such a constitution? We say: We have our forces; we have both military and police trained and ready. We shall have a constitution only when we know the power base won't break. The British are saying that the freedom fighters should be frozen in place here, and the Smith forces over there, and then there should be an election, and then the British will back off. And what do you suppose would happen then? Boom! This is why I want to talk security first.

Q. Why has all your support come from the Communist bloc countries?

A. When we started, we said to the West, 'We need arms to fight the fascists.' They said, 'Well, we cannot support violence in southern Africa.' Today, when we ask the West for money for schools, they say, 'Okay, but not directly, we will do it through the U.N.' They want cover, so we give them cover.

Q. Is there any chance for a rapprochement between the Patriotic Front and Muzorewa and Sithole?

A. My calculation is this: we know that the British support the little bishop [Muzorewa]. So you have Smith here, freedom fighters over there, and Muzorewa in the middle. Then come rigged elections. Muzorewa wins, the British leave, and Muzorewa right away calls for force --British or American or whatever--and you have paratroopers dropping in and cooperating with the Smith forces. And we get pushed out--again.

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