Word: british
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Front repeated its rejection of the British plan, Carrington excluded them from the talks and began bilateral negotiations with the Muzorewa government...
...tactical skills of Britain's urbane, aristocratic Foreign Secretary, the sixth week of the Lancaster House Conference in London on Zimbabwe Rhodesia ended with a long awaited breakthrough: Patriotic Front Co-Leaders Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo after a four-day exclusion from the talks accepted a British-drafted constitution. In return Lord Carrington promised Western-financed compensation for any lands nationalized by a future Zimbabwe government...
Behind Carrington's bold handling of the crisis lies a determination on the part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Tory government to rid itself of the "Rhodesian cross" as swiftly as possible. The British policy shift involves more than a mere change of government from Labor to Tory. Perceptively reading the mood of the Commonwealth and front-line states, Carrington had first to dissuade Thatcher from a premature recognition of the Muzorewa government...
During the six-month run-up to elections, Rhodesia would effectively revert to the status of a British colony, run by a British governor assisted by some 300 civilian and military advisers. A cease-fire would confine the Salisbury security forces to their barracks and the guerrillas to their bases, leaving Commonwealth observers to police the elections...
Carrington's plan is likely to meet strong objections from both sides. The Patriotic Front has thus far insisted on sharing power with Muzorewa and the British during the interim period and merging its armies with the Salisbury security forces. Muzorewa, on the other hand, may balk at the idea of abandoning all authority during the interim period. Hard-lining Rhodesian whites, led by former Prime Minister Ian Smith, can be expected to offer stiff resistance to a settlement that strips them of most of their remaining power...