Word: nkomo
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Lord Carrington still faces the problem of selling the British proposal to Patriotic Front Co-Leaders Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, who control 20,000 armed guerrillas inside Zimbabwe Rhodesia. At week's end, the Front leaders had refused to say whether they would accept any safeguards for the white minority. Indeed, one guerrilla spokesman waspishly branded Muzorewa's acceptance of the British plan as "an agreement between a master and puppet...
...only the second day. The unexpectedly swift approval of the agenda suggested that both sides were determined to reach agreement on a new constitution for the breakaway colony that could serve as a basis for a cease-fire and internationally recognized elections. As a senior adviser to Joshua Nkomo, the Patriotic Front co-leader, put it, "We are here for a settlement and we are taking it seriously. Posturing is one thing; reality is another...
...fighting and more than 18,000 deaths, neither side has gained a decisive edge. Salisbury's 12,000-man army and air force, backed by 40,000 reservists, have killed thousands of guerrillas in attacks on base camps in Mozambique and Zambia, but without crippling the Patriotic Front; Nkomo and his partner Robert Mugabe now have an estimated 12,000 fighters operating inside Zimbabwe Rhodesia, almost double the number of a year ago. Tiring of the stalemate, the guerrillas' backers in the "frontline states" (Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana) have prodded Nkomo and Mugabe to be more...
Both sides took extreme positions from which they claimed there could be no compromise. Muzorewa, just elected as part of an internal settlement between moderates and the white Smith government last April, was apparently unwilling to re-run the election; Nkomo and Mugabe, pressing forward on the battlefiels from bases in Zambia and Mozambique, were seemingly unwilling to exchange a certain cease-fire for uncertain political victory in domestic elections. Muzorewa justified his stand by claiming that the Front leaders were "terrorists" interested in seizing power. For their part, Nkomo and Mugabe called Muzorewa a "white puppet" blocking a switch...
...Patriotic Front leaders may also have little to gain from participation in election. If the Front agreed to a ceasefire, it would throw away its strongest card. President Julius Nyere of Tanzania reportedly believes that Nkomo and Mugabe would sweep free elections in an independent Zimbabwe; other observers are not so sure. It is possible that the long-standing military and political rivalry between ZAPU and ZANU, the two wings of the Front, might create confusion if Nkomo and Mugabe were to run together. Tribal rivalries would also play a role, since Nkomo is a Karanga and Mugabe a Zezeru...