Word: nkomo
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...hole cards down. But the players left the table with the cards unturned as British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington, chairman of the Lancaster House Conference, abruptly suspended negotiations. That was Carrington's response after a second refusal by Patriotic Front Co-Leaders Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo to accept a British-drafted constitution. The talks could not resume, said Carrington, until the guerrilla leaders approved the latest plan "without ambiguity...
First, Patriotic Front Leaders Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo surprised the conference by agreeing to give the tiny Rhodesian white minority (3% of the population) an outsize 20% of the seats in a future parliament. The move clearly ran against their longstanding contention that such a guarantee would be inherently "racist." Their grudging acceptance of it now brought them into line with the Salisbury delegation of Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa, which had adopted the 20% formula a week earlier. Then, with equally surprising magnanimity, the bishop's multiracial coalition government reversed an earlier stand and announced its acceptance...
...adviser to Muzorewa said in amazement at the pervasive mood of sweet reason. Even the militant Mugabe confessed that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the possibility of a settlement and graciously took Muzorewa off his personal list of "war criminals." His conciliatory tone was shared by fellow Guerrilla Leader Nkomo, who told TIME'S William McWhirter, "I would like everybody to be given a chance to contribute to a rea-soned-out solution of the problem. It is not the conference that has changed things. It's the circumstances that have changed...
...Nkomo, however, did suggest that whites might be assured of some parliamentary seats if electoral boundaries were redrawn...
Once Muzorewa had accepted the constitutional changes, the Patriotic Front offered a proposal for power sharing and the organization of security forces during the transitional period before new elections. Nkomo and Mugabe suggested an eight-man transitional governing council, composed of four guerrilla representatives plus four other members representing Britain and the present Salisbury government, with the British member acting as chairman. They also called for a joint Patriotic Front-Salisbury "transitional defense committee" to oversee the country's security force, and suggested a U.N. peacekeeping mission instead of the Commonwealth force favored by Carrington and Muzorewa...