Word: rhodesia
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Whether black majority rule will really have been achieved when that government takes office in June is a subject of heated debate. Muzorewa and Smith say yes. The black nationalists outside Rhodesia say no, and fight on. Certainly there is no doubt that under the new constitution the 212,000 whites will still have a special status. Though they account for only 4% of the population, they are guaranteed 28 of the 100 seats in the parliament, and for ten years will have control, through a complex veto provision, over such vital areas as the judiciary, the civil service...
...bring majority rule, open new schools and clinics, and help blacks find jobs. Muzorewa's top vote puller was a promise of free education for every child up to the seventh grade. Another important issue: ways to help enable blacks to buy their own farms. The average white in Rhodesia has 75 acres, while the average black has five. As Joshua Nkomo, one of the Patriotic Front leaders, has said, "This is the source of all our bitterness...
...Western diplomat in neighboring Zambia: "This next period is going to be violent, and the dimension of the violence is far greater than anybody has imagined." Joshua Nkomo's Zambia-based branch of the Patriotic Front currently has about 25,000 men under arms, including some 2,000 inside Rhodesia. The Mozambique-based branch, under Robert Mugabe, also has about 25,000 guerrillas, with 8,600 of them inside Rhodesia. The Rhodesian security forces' incursions into Mozambique and Zambia, where Nkomo's headquarters in Lusaka was raided two weeks ago, have made the guerrillas angrier than ever...
...British government of Prime Minister James Callaghan, has pretty much accepted the black African view that a new Rhodesian majority-rule government could effectively end the war only if it included representatives of the Patriotic Front. Accordingly, the U.S. and Britain have long advocated an all-parties conference on Rhodesia leading to a Salisbury government composed of both "internal" and "external" Rhodesian black leaders...
...Conservatives win Britain's May 3 election, they will undoubtedly alter British policy in the direction of support for Muzorewa and Smith. Some Tory advisers have pointed out that Britain's relations with its African allies, notably Nigeria, could be jeopardized by an abrupt change in policy on Rhodesia. The Commonwealth Prime Ministers are scheduled to meet in Zambia later this year. If the African members should still be angry with Mrs. Thatcher at that time, they could embarrass her greatly by deciding upon some kind of retaliation, such as an attempt to expel Britain from the British Commonwealth...