Zimbabwe Harangues in Harare

By Kenneth M. Pierce

India's Rajiv Gandhi was there, and so were Cuba's Fidel Castro, the P.L.O.'s Yasser Arafat, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and some 50 heads of state. The occasion was the eighth Summit Conference of the Nonaligned, a group now made up of 101 nations that was formed 25 years ago by leaders of the postwar independence movement: Nehru of India, Tito of Yugoslavia, Sukarno of Indonesia, Nkrumah of Ghana and Nasser of Egypt. Its members claim to be neutrals in the confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but its triennial meeting last week in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, was mainly the occasion for spirited America bashing.

Although Zimbabwe is deeply in debt, it put on a flashy show for its visitors. Many of the 2,000 delegates were put up in houses and apartments especially constructed for the conference, while others lived in the homes of wealthy Zimbabwe whites. Fleets of Mazda, Peugeot and Ford cars were rushed off local assembly lines for the visitors. Zimbabwe officials were embarrassed, though, to admit that many of the goods to run the conference, ranging from jet fuel to computer printouts, had to come from neighboring South Africa, a country whose racial policies were roundly and regularly condemned in conference speeches. Cost of the two-week affair: $30 million, about the same amount that Zimbabwe needs for drought relief.

In his keynote address opening the conference, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Robert Mugabe sought to sound a statesmanlike note. He expressed dismay at rising world military expenditures and attacked foreign interference in all parts of the world. Mugabe called for an end to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Viet Nam's occupation of Kampuchea, while attacking the U.S. for supporting Nicaraguan contras and rebels in Angola. He urged his fellow heads of state to provide economic aid if needed by the black African "frontline" states that are seeking to cut off trade with South Africa. In a television interview on the eve of the summit, Mugabe went further, telling reporters that he hoped the nonaligned nations would support military equipment and training to assist the black armed struggle in South Africa.

The predictable nonaligned script was suddenly changed, however, by Libya's always unpredictable Muammar Gaddafi. During a 75-minute address, he stole the show by attacking the whole concept of the organization. "What is the validity of a movement that cannot defend a member country if it is attacked?" asked Gaddafi, referring to the April 15 bombing of Tripoli by American jets. "I want to say goodbye, farewell to this funny movement, farewell to this utter falsehood. I am totally aligned against America, totally aligned against Israel, totally aligned against NATO. The dream of neutrality is over. There is no place for nonalignment anymore." But later, when reporters pressed him to know if Libya would withdraw from the nonaligned movement, Gaddafi smiled and said, "Not yet."

Flamboyantly garbed in a white cloak, purple shirt and black jacket, Gaddafi paused at one point during his speech to allow young Libyan women dressed in battle fatigues to chant cheerleader-style, "Down, down, U.S.A." Announcing that he planned to consult with his Libyan "people's committees" about withdrawing from the nonaligned, he called the summit a mere exchange of courtesies. "We meet," he said. "We eat together, we travel long distances and laugh together. In the cause of freedom we should not be nice to each other."

The 1961 charter of the movement defines it as a forum to apply "moral force" in international relations as part of the search for world peace. But, said Gaddafi, "to hell with international peace." Unless U.S. policy changes, he said, an international revolutionary army of resistance fighters should be sent out to combat the U.S. throughout the world. He urged other countries to "light a fire under the feet of the U.S." He also attacked Zaire, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast "as puppets of imperialism" because they had restored ties with Israel.

As he stepped from the rostrum, Gaddafi received only mild applause. In contrast, the audience clapped loudly when Mugabe replied that "not all our members" agree with Gaddafi. The Zimbabwe leader then added that the conference had at least given Gaddafi a forum to air his views.

Some Western officials tried to find encouraging signs from the meeting. British diplomats claimed to detect new realism in the summit's debates because the conferees rejected a Cuban proposal to praise the Soviet Union's support for nonaligned nations. But the Reagan Administration did not draw such fine distinctions. Said State Department Spokesman Charles Redman: "The litany of arbitrary and unfounded charges is both highly offensive and counterproductive. "

In a move that coincided with the meeting, Redman said the U.S. was suspending about $20.5 million in aid to Zimbabwe. The two countries have a dispute growing out of an anti-American harangue by Youth Minister David Karimanzira at a July 4 reception at the U.S. embassy in Harare. Former President Jimmy Carter, who was visiting the country and happened to be attending, walked out in protest. "The problem is not our political differences," said Redman, "but Zimbabwe's unwillingness to conduct its relations with us according to accepted norms of diplomatic civility and practice." Those norms did not seem to be the style in Harare last week.

With reporting by Peter Hawthorne/Harare