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Caesar's Planners Look at Africa
Implications of Soviet and Cuban Activities in Africa for U.S. Policy. By Michael Samuels, Chester Crocker, Roger Fontaine, Dimitri Simes and Robert Henderson. Center for Strategic and Intemational Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1979.
It has been clear for some time that the Carter administration's ''new policy'' for Africa was neither new nor very effective. Basic U.S. objectives remained the same: to preserve access to resources and markets, to maintain political stability, and to control the pace and pattern of change. In these terms, the policy — for all its efforts to gain African support and for all its public relations smoke has not succeeded. The continent is in more turmoil than ever. And no one doubts that the future will see further upheavals at least very few doubt it. The views presented in this Georgetown study reflect the growing concern at this failure inside and outside gov. ernment. Indeed, they may be said to reflect the energetic efforts of influential people to shift U.S. policy towards a more open interventionism in African affairs. For the views expressed here are distinctly interventionist, although, in their own narrow and ahistorical terms, absolutely logical. In reviewing the game, it is important to know the players. While the usual disclaimers are made, the fact is that the research upon which this monograph is based was sponsored by the Department of Defense. The seminar whose findings are summarized, and the report itself, were funded by that department. The National Security Council, the Department of State, the Department of Defense (ISA), the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency sent representatives to the seminar. Thus, while the report is not "official,'' it certainly reflects many of the views of the national security establishment. There is a growing consensus in that establishment that the United States has important interests in Africa, that the interests of its allies there are vital to them, and that Western interests taken together are seriously threatened by Soviet and Cuban “expansionism.” The question which is now being de
By SEAN GERVASI trying to square the circle, and that, in bated is what to do about it. The prob my view, is what some of the celebrated lem, in the view of many civilian and exponents of Carter's “new” Africa military planners, is not that we don't policy have been trying to do since late know what to do,'' but that the country 1976. For that reason this is a useful will not support “what must be done." monograph, the more so because of the For the country, in their view, suffers views represented. Caesar's planners from the “Vietnam syndrome” – it is are assessing the situation, more or less hesitant about committing itself to frankly. another armed nation-building enter The implications of this analysis, of prise like the one which absorbed our course, are exceedingly alarming. For energies for so many years in Southeast if this view takes hold, as it is appaAsia. Hence, books like this one, which rently doing, the United States will are designed to educate public opinion. soon be involved on the wrong side in The starting point of the analysis in more than one war on the African conthe Georgetown report is that Soviet tinent, or to put it slightly more accuand Cuban involvement in Africa poses rately, it will be more deeply involved a serious threat to Western interests on in such wars. This is another way of that continent. Thus, the United States saying that formal logic and historical should embark upon a more active pol understanding are not the same thing. icy, devoting substantial resources to it. The premises from which the whole It should seek to strengthen its allies by analysis proceeds are profoundly supporting “civil administration, po- wrong. For the basic question is not litical party structures, civilian policy whether the United States should enter structures, labor union officials, and some competition with the Soviet military forces." The list is standard Union. The basic question is what is Southeast Asia issue, circa 1960. happening in Africa? And why is it The United States should encourage happening? Is change taking place be“meaningful change," but it should cause the Soviet Union is bent upon seek to shape change to protect its inter expansionism? Or is change carried ests. The fact of change does not neces forward by more fundamental forces, sarily present a problem. What matters by forces indigenous to the continent? is whose interests are affected by The fundamental error, and the unchange and whose influence shapes it. examined premise, in the Georgetown In order to achieve our goals we report is that the “intemational status should collaborate more closely with quo" is viable and acceptable to the our allies, tie economic assistance to great majority of Africans. As the reour own political objectives, become port says, “Africa is part of the nonmore deeply involved in the security communist world economic system. problems of the continent. It proceeds to take this as the one given In short, the United States, along which receives no critical scrutiny. with its allies, is engaged in a competi Thus, the members of the seminar aptive contest with the Soviet Union on parently believe, like most U.S. the continent of Africa. The Soviet policymakers today, that the tradiUnion is seeking to establish a global tional, historical relations between Afpresence and to alter the international rica and Western countries are accepistatus quo.” And the Soviet Union, in able relations in African eyes. contrast to the United States, has been There is abundant evidence that this willing to offer arms and support is not true. Africa is passing through a wherever necessary in order to achieve period of upheavals precisely because its aims.' The United States must in the relations created by Western power crease its efforts in this contest in order in Africa are oppressive. They make to protect its interests, to “win." impossible precisely that economic deI have said that in its own terms this velopment which the report sees as the analysis is absolutely logical. At least primary aim for Africa at this stage of so it seems to me. And I have always history. One scarcely has to look at the found these views refreshing for the statistics. The facts are well known. frankness with which they are expres Africa has been poor and remains so. sed. It is a welcome change from the There is no prospect, within the present tortuous reasoning of people who are continued on Pg. 16 Page 3
New Men for New Measures Joseph Kraft
Rigid application of past outcomes to changed circumstances signals lack of understanding. So word that the president plans to announce for the Mideast and Central Asia a doctrine akin to that put forward by President Truman for Europe not only smacks of public relations; it also suggests preparations for fighting the last war. It recalls the comment by the Duke of Wellington about a troop of recruits: “I don't know if they will frighten the enemy, but, by God, they certainly frighten me.” Still, those who have urged a more realistic foreign policy featuring stronger barriers to Soviet adventurism cannot simply stand and wait. Events are now on the move. President Carter is in the White House for at least a year more-maybe five. So the test is not whether he suddenly takes on new rhetoric. It is whether he begins to surround himself with associates equal to the new tasks. For those who brought us into the present mess are not those who can best get us out. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance has been the foremost proponent of de tente with Russia and arms control at any cost. At the undersecretary level,
Radar Hinted Africa A-Blast
national security, Zbigniew Brzezinski, he has taken on colleagues chiefly re well understands the threat of Soviet markable for being moons that do not expansion. But he has no allies in the outshine his sun. Policy-making at the bureaucracy and tends to favor rhetodepartment has devolved chiefly upon ric over operations. He has lost battle regional assistant secretaries. Those re after battle to Vance, and is void of imsponsible for Asia and the Mideast and pact on the execution of policy. Africa have been notorious for their The inability of the old gang to develconviction that the United States had op new measures finds abundant exto let down old friends the better to ac pression. The response to the invasion commodate radical regimes. of Afghanistan was convulsive, not Secretary of Defense Harold Brown smooth. No consensus was built in this has concentrated on procurement is country. Allies in Europe were sursues and deferred on policy matters to prised and not ready to rally 'round. Vance. Brown delayed for months be The Third World countries most wooed fore filling the post of undersecretary by President Carter-witness the abfor policy. Even now, the incumbent, stention of Mexico in the recent U.N. Se Robert Komer, has been barred from curity Council vote on economic sancresponsibility in that political hot spot, tions against Iran-did not support him. the Mideast. The Russians had reason to feel that the As director of central intelligence, United States, as Leonid Brezhnev put Adm. Stansfield Turner has had vir it, had been "an unreliable partner.” tually no impact on policy-and not The operational follow-up has been merely because the CIA has been ham unimpressive. Pakistan is being offered strung by congressional rules either. long-term aid when it asked for what Turner, like most of the top brass of amounts to an immediate security this country, prefers machines to men, guarantee. China is being fed words, and shies from covert action of a politi not weapons. The countries of the Percal kind. Judging by the stream of CIA sian Gulf are asked to sign up for bases documents distributed to the press, his that are-somehow-not bases. The working motto is “Publish or Perish.” CLA, instead of being subject to less The president's special assistant for complex regulation, is going to be put under a charter. If reelected, Carter will have to make January 14, 1960 wholesale changes. For the time being, a total purge is out. But there are some places where the president can begin to make a dent. He would pay no price for replacing makes it opaque, then reappears when Turner with someone more versed in the shock wave dissipates. projecting American political influence abroad. He would add new strength if The Carter adminiistration has not he placed under Brzezinski in the Narevealed the fact that radar echoes tional Security Council a genuine crisis were also picked up about the same manager. Similarly if Komer's writ as time as the Vela sightings, in part be. undersecretary of defense for policy cause the radar signals were so ambi. were made to run around the world. guous. New men for new measures are reApparently, fierce electrical storms quired not merely as a gauge of the can also account for radar echoes cf the kind the Air Force picked up the president's serious intentions. The fact is that the United States is starting to night of Sept. 22, when the suspected nuclear explosion took place. For this traverse a danger zone. Regimes up and reason alone, the Carter administra down the Persian Gulf, and particution has kept silent about the radar larly in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, echoes being confirmation that a nu could easily come apart. The chances of clear explosion indeed took place. Russian overreaction or miscalculation The missing link in the puzzle is are not small. So there is intense need confirming evidence beyond the ob for foreign policy advisers who act out servation of the Vela satellite. What of instinct and with conviction-not by scientists have really looked for is the trying to remember what was done by radioactive fallout from an explosion, Harry Truman. whch should have ghown up in the THE WASHINGTON POST January 18, 1981 rainwater in the Southern Hemi. sphere, but has not shown up in quantities that would be convincing evi Zambia Battles Cholera dence of a nuclear test. The White House Office of Science LUSAKA, Zambia, Jan, 17 (AP)Policy is in the midst of preparing ad Zambia has launched a massive antireport on the South African event cholera campaign after the disease that may be made public this week. A killed more than 21 people in the draft of the report is understood to have been circulated among members south-central African country's north. of the National Security Council late ern province, it was announced here last week for comment. today.
By Thomas O'Toole Washington Post Staff writer Early warning radar antennas operated by the Air Force picked up the signals last Sept. 22 of what many sciantists suspect was an atomic explo. sion in the atmosphere near South Africa. Sources in the Carter administration said the radar dishes may have witnessed the echoes of the shock waves from a nuclear explosion as They moved rapidly through the layers of clouds in the upper atmosphere. If an atomic explosion had taken place in the atmosphere, it could have transinitted shock waves through the upper atmosphere that would be carried halfway around the world. "What we have is a very tenuous piece of data," one source said. “It could be that thunderstorms and at. inospheric disturbances that had nothing to do with an atomic explosion were giving us the radar signals we got.” The trouble is, the source said, the radar echoes were picked up by the Air Force at about the same time o'i Sept. 22 that a Vela satellite saw the double pulse of light in the atmosphere that is the unmistakable signature of a nuclear explosion. The twin light spike occurs when the fireball briefly disappears as the shock wave Page 4
Nkomo Seen as Key to ‘Kenya Solution for New Rhodesia
THE NEW YORK TIMES JANUARY 20, 1980 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR British balk at Rhodesian's plans Salisbury, Rhodesia A political tug of war continues between the caretaker British government in Rhodesia and guerrilla leader Robert Mugabe, Monitor correspondent Gary Thatcher reports. Mr. Mugabe is planning to retum from Mozambique to Salisbury on Sunday, and his supporters have plastered the streets with posters announcing a welcoming political rally. But the British government is prodding him to order the release of some 70 political detainees in Mo Camerapix zambique before ending his exile Robert Mugabe there. The release of these detainees, who ran atoul of Mr. Mugabe in SALISBURY, Rhodesia In three years of exile, the national Zimbabwe African National Union, is stipulated in the LanJoshua Nkomo adopted the manner of the revolutionary, to caster House agreement, which Mr. Mugabe signed in London in Decemthe extent of acquiring a capacious general's uniform in ber. He is reported to be balking at releasing them, though, and so the East Germany. But when he finally came home last week, it British governor here is balking at allowing him to retum and start camwas in the trappings of a peacemaker. Waving above the paigning for next month's elections. heads of the 150,000 supporters who flocked to cheer him were banners proclaiming “Nkomo for stability," "Nkomo bique-based guerrilla leader. The risk involved - that the for peace," "Nkomo for unity." 15,000 Mugabe fighters might revive the war – evidently With elections for a black majority government barely has been offset against the pressures that the front-line six weeks away, the 62-year-old nationalist was positioning states are known to be applying for an end to the conflict. himself in middle ground, hopeful that the fragmented bal. Some officials in Salisbury argue that even a Mugabe loting arithmetic will enable him to form a ruling coalition. abrogation of the truce would not torpedo the settlement, as He has powerful allies. Britain's preference for Rhode long as Mr. Nkomo remained “on-side," as the Rhodesian sia's first authentic black ruler falls naturally on Mr. parlance adopted by the British expresses it. If Mr. Mugabe Nkomo, whom they first came to know at an unsuccessful pulled out, so the argument goes, he would be leaving the constitutional conference in 1981. Although he and his sup electoral field open to his rivals, primarily Mr. Nkomo and porters have more than once thwarted British settlement white Rhodesians' first black standard-bearer, Bishop Abel plans since then, the view in London has consistently been T. Muzorewa. The government that emerged, if it included that an Nkomo-based coalition offered the best hope for a Mr. Nkomo, would be assured of the backing of much of the “Kenya solution" that would foster free enterprise and links world, presumably including the Soviet Union, Mr. Nkomo's with the West and avert a flight of minority whites. principal backer in the war. China, Mr. Mugabe's main sup The preference helps explain the heavy-handed policy plier, would have the unenviable choice of accepting the new that British colonial authorities in Rhodesia have adopted government or of supporting a continued insurgency with no toward Mr. Nkomo's erstwhile partner in the guerrilla war, certainty of success. The same considerations would apply Robert Mugabe, who London fears might prove a practicing for Tanzania and Mozambique, Mr. Mugabe's best African as well as a rhetorical Mandst in power. The British also friends, with the added drawback that support for a pro doubt that Mr. Mugabe could survive the violent factional tracted war would deny their battered economies the relief fighting that has characterized his Zimbabwe African Na that peace in Rhodesia could bring. tional Union since it broke with Mr. Nkomo in 1963. Logic for Mr. Mugabe appears to dictate persistence in While the British and Mr. Nkomo have maintained civil the electoral battle, coupled with protests against British relations, the relationship with Mr. Mugabe has worsened policy that could form the basis for contesting the election by the week. Britain has pointed to the erratic behavior of result. For Britain and others hopeful of isolating him, the the Mugabe forces since the cease-fire went into effect three wish must be that he falls short of the minimum seats that weeks ago. Mr. Mugabe, in interviews and in a letter to Brit would make a Mugabe government unstoppable. ish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has threatened to By common reckoning anything over 40 of the 80 avail. abrogate the truce if the British persist in policies he has de able black seats would be enough to insure a Mugabe-based picted as violations of the London agreement. administration, since any alternative regime would have to His prime complaint centers on a South African Army rely on the 20 white parliamentarians to sustain it in power. contingent, said to number 300 men, that Britain has permit This would require Mr. Mugabe to take more than 65 percent ted to remain on Rhodesian soil until the Feb. 27-29 elec. of the vote in areas outside Mr. Nkomo's stronghold of Mata. tions. He has also denounced the British Governor, Lord beleland, an uphill task for any party, let alone one in an Soames, for authorizing deployment of the Rhodesian Army eight-comered contest. Soundings suggest that Mr. Mugabe and Air Force against guerrilla groups - mainly Mr. Mu and Bishop Muzorewa are more likely to share the votes in gabe's men, since Mr. Nkomo's force is largely inside the Mashonaland, their tribal base, where 80 percent of the cease-fire camps that refuse to come in. He also has pro population lives, leaving Mr. Mugabe in need of a strong tested the activities of Salisbury's own shadow guerrilla coalition partner to govern. force, the so-called auxiliaries, who have been widely used Running under the banner of the Patriotic Front, but in the hunt for dissident Mugabe fighters. separate from Mr. Mugabe, Mr. Nkomo seems assured of None of the matters in dispute is clearcut; the London the 18 Matabeleland seats and could also pick up a few in peace agreement, for example, says nothing about the pres Mashonaland. II Bishop Muzorewa ran moderately well, ence of foreign troops during the campaign, leaving Mr. Mu taking 20 to 30 of the 62 Mashonaland seats, Mr. Nkomo gabe to rely on vague assurances offered by the Tory Gov could have the swing votes to make a majority. In an alernment during the negotiations and in Parliament. But the liance with Mr. Mugabe, he would almost certainly have to issues Mr. Mugabe has raised are serious ones that have settle for a junior partnership. But with the backing of the won widespread support among African governments and whites, many of whom have despaired of Bishop Muzorewa, sympathy among diplomats from the four Commonwealth he could patch together a coalition that would make him countries that, along with Britain, contributed to the 1,300 Prime Minister, with the bishop as titular President man force monitoring the cease-fire. Many things could upset the calculation, not less In these circumstances, the dismissive tone adopted by Bishop Muzorewa's own ambitions. But few who are io. Lord Soames toward the Mugabe complaints is being lowed Mr. Nkomo through 30 years of nationalist politics viewed as a signal that Britain is set on isolating the Mozam doubt that he will be in there at the finish, a kingpin one av or the other. Page 5
Will Rhodesia play politics with scarce metals?
THE UNEASY DIPLOMATS representatives and International Whaling Commission staffers at hot-spot embassies. To push their cause, a few disgruntled diplomats want to ditch their present union, the American Foreign Service Association, and sign up with the more militant Teamsters or United Auto Workers. But no action of any kind will be taken until the Teheran crisis ends. BILL ROEDER with bureau reports Salisbury, Rhodesia THE PRESIDENT DRAWS THE LINE: IN PERSIAN GULF (Continued) The looming transition of this southern African country to spending $170 million over the next five majority rule, coupled with Soviet aggression in Afghani- occupation of Afghanistan has given the Among other strategic dividends, the years. Some officials believe that $1 bil. lion or more will have to be spent before stan, has sparked fresh concern on this point. Soviet Air Force is the use of half a dozen Diego Garcia can be turned into a major The reason: Much of the world's supply of such vital met- airfields from which bombers could at. base. als as chrome, manganese, and cobalt comes either from the lack sea and land targets in the north For the moment, the Soviet Union ap western corner of the Indian Ocean and in Soviet Union or southern Africa. pears to have the advantage. It has the Persian Gulf. With American-Soviet relations deteriorating and this ground, air and sea forces in the region. mineral-rich, white-ruled colony about to become the black Aside from the planes aboard the The naval element may be balanced by majoritv-ruled nation of Zimbabwe, some analysts are pon- American carriers and the B-52 bombers the American squadrons. But there is no balance to the Soviet divisions and air dering whether US dependence on imported minerals from that could be flown from 13th Air Force potentially unreliable suppliers parallels its precarious reli- bases in the Philippines, the United regiments in Afghanistan and in the States has no air resources in the area. southern military districts of the Soviet ance on foreign oil. Fighters could be transferred from Air Union. Rep. James D. Santini (D) of Nevada, interviewed here Force bases in West Germany and FB-111 The hope of military planners in Wash. during a fact-finding tour of southern Africa, says that the long-range fighter bombers from Britain. ington and at United States headquarters situation is cause for serious concern. Citing one example, Negotiations for Bases Continuing in Europe is that they will be granted Representative Santini, a member of the House Committee The negotiations for the use of bases on time to complete the organization of the on Interior and Insular Affairs, says that “80 percent of the the island of Masira off Oman, in Berbera Rapid Deployment Force, from which free world's supply of chrome comes from South Africa and in Somalia and at Mombasa in Kenya are any intervention units for the Persian Rhodesia, mostly Rhodesia. continuing, but they are unlikely to be Gulf would be drawn, and time to build and deploy the ships and planes required “You can't make a hospital in compliance with existing concluded soon. to provide a credible deterrent to Soviet regulations. You can't make a car, you can't make a jet air- The only firm base is Diego Garcia, an conventional forces. Otherwise, as one plane, without chrome,” adds the silver-haired American island in the Chagos Archipelago of the retired admiral said, the President's representative. Indian Ocean. The Defense Department promise of intervention is likely prove By March, Rhodesia is scheduled to have a new govern- hopes to improve the facilities there by hollow. ment. And two of the top three contending parties – the Patriotic Front and the Zimbabwe African National Union The Soviet Union, on the other hand, has its own reserves (ZANU) – have been supported by the Soviet Union in their of the mineral. The American government is supposed to struggle to come to power here. maintain stockpiles of key commodities for use in a national The Soviet Union, with an estimated annual chrome out emergency. But, according to Mr. Santini, stockpiles of straput of 2.5 million tons, is the world's second-largest producer tegic minerals are woefully inadequate. of the metal. Acting in concert with a friendly government Some experts argue that much of the concern over stratehere, it could manipulate both supply and price of the key gic minerals is unwarranted. They point out that minerals commodity. will still be in place after any amount of civil unrest, and that For the US, dependent on imports for over 90 percent of its most governments, especially in developing African counchrome needs, the implications could be ominous. The only tries, will need to sell those minerals to earn foreign exother major supplier is white-ruled South Africa, which some change. Consequently, they argue, any cutoff of supplies to analysts believe will be facing increasing internal unrest in the US is unlikely. coming years. But others retort that such reasoning overlooks the possiWhile the Soviets have cultivated friends here, American bility of extortionate price fixing or the formation of "mincompanies allegedly have undertaken private diplomacy eral cartels” similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exwith some questionable results. An official of one American porting Countries (OPEC). Moreover, the mere disruption of company, Allegheny Ludlum Industries, Inc., reportedly supplies of strategic minerals works to the Soviet Union's adaided the South African Government in funneling secret vantage, some argue. funds to a party headed by long-time nationalist James And a military official in Zaire claims that the last disrupChikerema. Most election observers give the party virtually tion of Zaire's production - caused by an invasion of Shaba no chance of winning next month's elections. Province by guerrillas based in the Soviet client state of AnThe US also imports some 98 percent of its manganese, gola - resulted in huge price increases for Russian cobalt. the hardening element in steel alloys. Mr. Santini says 93 To make certain that dependence on foreign minerals percent of the noncommunist world's reserves are in South does not endanger US defenses or its economic well-being, Africa. President Carter ordered a “national nonfuel minerals More alarming still is the Congressman's pronouncement study" in 1977. Congressman Santini labels the preliminary that over 60 percent of noncommunist countries' supply of co report – produced after consultations with some 14 federal balt comes from a single mine in Zaire's Shaba Province agencies and the expenditure of $3 million – “a whitewash." an area plagued by guerrilla uprisings and instability. The The question of mineral supply demands greater governUS imports over 90 percent of its cobalt, a critical element in ment concern, private sector involvement, and consideration the manufacture of jet-aircraft engines. in the formulation of US foreign policy, he says. Page 6
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Jan. 2-4, 1980
A candidate in Rhodesia's elections next month was assassinated at his home in suburban Salisbury. Police identified the victim as Oliver Saunyama, a member of the black faction led by Ndabaningi Sithole.
SAUDIS, AMERICANS WORRIED ABOUT (Continued) use of the Army's 82nd Airborne publicly worried that “America is on Division to protect the Saudi oil. almost the opposite of the globe from fields. the Gulf, over 8,000 miles away Yet there is growing concern both in flying time, 14 hours," while "the in Washington and in Saudi Arabia other principal superpower . . . is less than a thousand miles away." that the long airlift required to For these reasons, the United move the 82nd from its North Ca. States is seeking access to airfields rolina base, or even to fly in U.S. and ports in the Persian Gulf region. troops from Europe, might badly American experts are examining fahamper any U.S. help for the Saudis. cilities that might be available in Even before the invasion of Af. Oman, Somalia and Kenya. The ghanistan, Prince Bandar bin Sul. United States also is developing a tan, a prominent Saudi military offi. Rapid Deployment Force that could cer and son of the defense minister, be used in this part of the world. RHODESIA RESORT AREA WAITS But the Saudis have mixed feel. FOR TRUCE (Continued) ings about the possibility of U.S. military moves in their region. camps to await the outcome of the late While supporting establishment of February elections. The border with U.S. bases in nearby countries, they Zambia was reopened recently, and have refused to allow any on their Zambians are scurrying across to buy own soil. butter, maize, and other commodities un However serious the external available in their own country. threats, the biggest danger to Saudi Yet there is little rejoicing in Kariba. oil could come from inside the coun. Many people, especially the whites, seem try. The takeover of the Mecca mosque too distracted by what the future may bring to be pleased by the present. last November has been attributed to religious zealots, but one Saudi Says one black woman. “Everyone is official conceded that "in this coun. waiting for the elections." try, religion and politics are the The waiting leaves Kariba in a kind of same." By condemning the royal suspended animation. Few tourists come family's modernization program as to gaze at Kariba Dam, one of the engi irreligious, the Mecca terrorists neering marvels of Africa, or the ele were making a political attack. phants and lions that sometimes roam the What may be even more worri. city's outskirts at dusk and dawn. some, Saudi Arabia's long-dormant The hoteis here have been kept open Shiite Moslem minority, with 200,000 only with government aid, in the form of to 300,000 members, has grown rebel. both direct grants and heavily subsidized lious. In November, 500 Shiite rioters package tours. Other amusements, such briefly seized the oil-field town of as excursion cruises and seaplane tours, Qatif, wrecking a bank, seizing a po operate well below capacity. lice station and clashing with Saudi Even troops. the black women selling Since these incidents, internal secrocheted goods under shade trees in the curity has been tightened and a center of town undercut each other in an number of military and political almost desperate competition for scarce leaders have been sacked. The Saudi tourist dollars: an intricately patterned ta government has begun to train a blecloth, requiring hours of work, fetches special "industrial antisabotage only about the equivalent of $15. force" of at least 1,000 men to counMost of the black people here live in two ter potential oil-field terrorists. bleak townships, one of which is sand "Our aim is to limit terrorist damwiched out-of-sight between two resorts. age," one official said. The gap between their own hard-scrabble existence and the leisure of vacationing RHODESIA (Continued) whites is a source of discontent. sion needed to fight the forthcoming Yet some blacks worry that a victory election campaign. by either Mr. Nkomo's ZAPU or Robert The problem, however, is that if Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Britain is seen to go too far in its efUnion (ZANU) might mean a mass exodus forts to contain him, he could call on of whites, total collapse of the tourist in his powerful supporters in the outdustry, and the disappearance of their side world to try to wreck Britain's jobs. hopes of securing universal recogni. “I hope Bishop (Abelj Muzorewa is tion of the settlement. elected," says one black supporter of the Meantime, the chorus of criticism diminutive Methodist churchman who of British rule is growing daily, the preaches a markedly milder form of Afri latest addition being Amnesty Intercan nationalism than either Mr. Nkomo or national, which has severely criticized Mr. Mugabe. Lord Soames for failing to release po“Nkomo and Mugabe would run all the litical prisoners. Europeans out,” she predicts, “and then If the next phase of the settlement we would be back to square one." White rhetoric does little to dissuade process, the elections, is to be carried off as successfully as the ceasefire, such fears. “If either of them (Nkomo or Britain may find that it is useful from Mugabe) came to power, I reckon I'd leave," vows a white businessman. time to time to stop playing the
BRITAIN (Continued) Mugabe dispute this. In what appears to be a growing area of concern for bringing about peaceful conditions in the countryside so that independence elections can be conducted. Soames said. “Many of the problems we have encountered nave been with ZANLA," the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army controlled by Mugabe. “There is evidence of substantial border crossings by ZANLA since Dec. 21," Soames said. That was the cutoff date for the end of guerrilla infiltration under the cease-fire terms. Referring to the more than 15,000 armed supporters of Mugabe who have entered “peace camps" but who retain their weapons under the truce provisions, the Soames statement said that “a considerable number" of those who have complied with the truce terms are not "genuine combatants” but are youths who were given rifles. This allows the hard-core guerrillas to remain outside the camps, ready to resume the war, according to the British interpretations of events, or to "carry out intimidation during the election campaigns." But as spokesman Fenn noted, Soames has been criticized by many for favoring the guerrillas. However, Fenn added, Soames' decisions derive from his "inflexible determination to conduct free and fair elections."
Abel Muzorewa, the moderate black politician, and whites have criticized Soames for amending the law to allow the Nkomo political party to remain on the ballot, although due to a technicality in their election paperwork Nkomo's people could have been disqualified. Muzorewa also complained to Soames because he allowed a “neutral" cease-fire helicopter flown by the British to take Muzorewa's ar. chrival, Nkomo, to a political rally. The British said they did so because of the need for security for Nkomo in the emotional political campaigning now under way. The whites are indignant because Soames has commuted the death sentences of 11 blacks to life imprisonment. Most were convicted of violence against whites.
heavy and to employ the gentle arts of diplomacy, if only to ensure that its disengagement from Rhodesia does not leave a legacy of bitterness. Paul Ellman is Salisbury corre. spondent for the London Observer. Page 7
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
MOROCCO
in ne uesert wilderness of Western Sahara, clashes still occur between forces of Morocco's King Hassan and guerrilla units of the Polisario Front, based in neighboring Algeria. The Moroccans are comparatively well equipped and have been promised more US arms. The hit-and-run guerrillas use captured weapons and Soviet arms funneled through Algeria. Both sides claim to be winning this bitter, little-reported struggle on Africa's barren northwestern shoulder. The stories on this page one giving the Moroccon view, the other the Polisario picture – indicate how wide the gulf is in reports about this desert war. place before the death of President Houari Rabat, Morocco Boumedienne over a year ago. And it is Peace may be on the way in the Sa SPAIN believed here that a secret dialogue behara, and the United States role in sup PORTUGAL tween King Hassan and President Chadli port of Morocco may be an important fac may continue today. tor in achieving a solution to the conflict. Meanwhile, Moroccan military power is Atlantic Ocean This, at any rate, is the conclusion of being brought closer in line with the supeEuropean analysts here who have speculated rior Algerian force by the resupply of US Rabat recently that the prolonged desert conflict parts and military hardware. President Cartwith the Algerian-based Polisario Front guer-er's proposed sale of 8 F-5E fighter Madeira Islands rillas will be resolved by an agreement planes would help balance Algeria's armada between Morocco and Algeria. of 260 combat aircraft, which includes soIf so, the US decision to resupply Mo- phisticated Soviet-built bombers, as well as rocco with arms, and thus reduce the ima growing fleet of MIG-23 and MIG-25 Canary Islands balance in military power between the two fighters. ALGERIA countries, seen as exerting a moderating Moroccan deployment of a large mobile influence on an explosive situation in the force throughout the desert area is also Sahara that continues to threaten Africa's seen as a stabilizing factor in the conflict. political equilibrium. While Algeria attempts to thrash out its "The Saharan affair, which seemed to severe economic and social problems at Bir Enziran be dangerously deteriorating six months ago, Dakhla home, the Algerian President is said to is certainly not resolved, but seems to be have privately denounced the Saharan conat least defused," says the diplomatic MAURITANIA flict as a waste of time. MALI weekly l'Echo de l'Afrique. “It does not Indeed, as seen from here, the average appear that it will result in a fratricidal Algerian has no interest in Western Sahara. confrontation between Algeria and Morocco." Since the Polisario has failed in its atAlgeria, according to the weekly, has Nouakchott tempts to take the towns of Dakhla and WESTERN SAHARA been quietly indicating that it does not Smara, so as to establish a capital in JF (Former Spanish Sahara) wish to push the conflict to all-out war, the Sahara, Algeria continues to play the even though it harbors Polisario camps reluctant host and may soon be seeking “King Hassan sent his troops to occupy within its borders. the Western Sahara," quipped the turbaned an out, according to the Moroccans. While Morocco's King Hassan has striven Some Europeans understand Morocco's com Youssef, “so we in turn have brought the to soften the anti-Algerian outcry in war into Moroccan territory and will strike parison of the Western Sahara “provinces" Moroccan government circles, Algerian Presi- to France's Alsace-Lorraine and the Spanish even more boldly in the future." dent Chadli Benjedid has reportedly warned During a week-long, 1,000-kilometer tour Basque region – namely as unviable territhe Polisario Front that the guerrillas are tories unsuited to independence. with Polisario guerrilla units in both southon their own in any large undertaking ern Morocco and the Western Sahara a A French Deputy, Gabriel Perronnet, said against the Moroccans. few months ago, I saw ample evidence to recently after visiting Morocco: “This is Reports reaching here also state that the attest to the intensity of this bitter desert unquestionably an armed rebellion. The Algerian diplomatic mission seemed highly war. The conflict was touched off in 1975 Moroccans could not simply let it go.” embarrassed by the pro-Polisario voting at after Morocco's "Green March" into the Only a political solution can end the the recent Organization of African Unity then Spanish Sahara. meeting in Monrovia, Liberia. This might struggle, he stated. With Poltsarlo guerrillas After an initial defensive period, during explain the backtracking noted in the meet- Omar Youssef, a Polisario sector com which it organized refugee camps in southing's recommendations, which referred only mander, defiantly pointed out the Moroccan ern Algeria for about 130,000 Sahrawi civilto Moroccan withdrawal from Rio de Oro, base at Zaag from atop a rocky outcrop ians, Polisario has taken to the offensive the lower third of Western Sahara. overlooking the desolate Saharan countryside. over the past year. After the separate Moroccan officials affirm that secret Alge- Zaag, the last position still controlled by peace treaty with Mauritania last August, rian-Moroccan contacts took place during 1978 the Moroccan Army in southeastern Morocco, the Sahrawi liberation movement has been and were so far along that a summit is completely surrounded by Algerian-based able to concentrate all its efforts against meeting in Belgium was foreseen. Algeria Polisario guerrillas and is supplied only by the Moroecan armed forces. does not deny that such contacts took Continued on Pg. 19 Page 8
FROM OUR SOUTH AFRICA CORRESPONDENT
MOROCCO THE ECONOMIST (CONTINUED) South Africa The extent of recent Moroccan military the phone is not cut off, you know you setbacks became evident after a morning are on the list. Everyone knows that visit to the garrison town of Lebouirate. Telephones are tapped and letters Sweeping out of the desert at dawn in away opened; since 1958 there has been what small, speedy Land-Rover trucks, the amounts to legislative carte blanche for Polisario guerrillas rapidly caved in the it. But to know something is happening is Moroccan defenses and engulfed the town. As South Africans tell it, the quickest one thing; to have the names of the I noted more than 40 destroyed victims provided by a defector from the way to find out whether your telephone is Moroccan tanks and dozens of other vehi security services is something else. So a tapped is to stop paying your account. If major storm is building up over what Mr cles in and around the town. King Hassan Arthur McGiven has revealed to the claims to have reoccupied Lebouirate, but British Sunday newspaper, the Observer. the only reminder of the Moroccan pres military advisers in Rabat. Hassan still ence at that time was a stray dog. fears a repetition of the attempted Army Nobody is greatly surprised that Mr The morale of Moroccan troops, mostly coups in 1971 and 1972." McGiven has revealed that he was an conscripts from the slum-ridden cities in Polisario has coupled traditional hit-and-run agent of what was formerly the bureau the north and poor peasants, was not attacks, used for centuries by its nomad for state security (Boss) and is now the high. My guide and translator, Bechir, ancestors, with lightning assaults on fixed department of national security (Dons). showed me the logbook kept by Muhammad Moroccan positions by several thousand In 1974, when he was vice-president of Azelmat, a Moroccan commander, in which troops. Faced with a highly mobile and the student representative council at the he wrote that, “traumatized and demoralized, elusive enemy, the Moroccans have become university of the Witwatersrand in Johanthe soldiers of the 3d Armored Erigade bogged down in a desert war that they are no longer operational, and a catastro seem poorly prepared to fight. nesburg, he was already arousing suspi cion. Nor can there be much surprise at phe of no uncertain proportions is likely The Moroccan high command has de his claims that the people who have been ployed new tactics to counter Polisario to occur if the enemy decides to attack spied on include Mrs Helen Suzman, a successes, but the results have been meaagain." ger. Col. Ahmed Dlimi, the King's top siaunch opponent of the Nationalist govLater that day, I visited the nearby military adviser, led a column of 6,000 ernment and a member of pariiament ior battlefield of Wadi Techitt, where a power- men and 1,500 vehicles in a sweep across the Progressive Reform party, and leadful Moroccan relief column, heading from southern Morocco and the Western Sahara ers of the extreme right-wing Herstigle Zaag to Lemsayed, was decimated last Sep- last December. Polisario fighters were able Nasionale party. This pariy will undoubitember. The Moroccans panicked and broke to avoid much direct contact with this edly make political capital out of the ranks, attempting to flee toward their large search-and-destroy mission. disclosures. using them to suppon its bases. The fast-moving guerrillas pursued The Moroccans are also counting on re argument that the government is betraythem, picking off isolated groups of vehicles inforced air power to curtail Polisario ing" Afrikaners. one after another. movements. But “Moroccan pilots rarely fly Hundreds of decomposing vehicles – in- lower than 7,500 feet, in order to avoid Mi McGiven's revelations revive pubcluding United States-supplied heavy-duty GMC Polisario's SAM missiles," a captured fighter Tic unease about the government's coveri trucks were strewn across the rocky pilot, Ali Najab. said. (SAM missiles are activities just when it was hoping that the plain. The hardened footsteps of fleeing light, Soviet-type ground-to-air rockets.) worst of the information department Moroccan soldiers were still visible in the “The Moroccan Air Force is frankly not scandal had been explained away. This mud of the half-dry riverbed. The bodies effective, and I do not think that the in time it will be easier for the prime minisof several dozen Moroccans littered the troduction of French-built Mirage F-1 fighters ter, Mr P. W. Botha, to shift the blame. area. will radically alter the present situation,” Dons was a creation of his predecessor, Polisario fighters were delighted to forage he added. The Moroccans have admitted Mr John Vorster, and of General Henin the Moroccan vehicles for batteries, losing three of these $5 million planes drik van den Bergh, both of whom had to headlights, and other scarce spare parts. since November. retire in disgrace because of the informaAlthough most of the guerrillas' heavy ar. Moving southward into the Western Sa- tion department affair. During the 15 mament is Soviet-made, they also make ex- hara, or what my guides call the Sahrawi months that Mr Botha has been prime tensive use of Western arms captured from Arab Democratic Republic (now recognized minister, the power of Dons has waned. Moroccan forces. by 35 states), I visited the garrison town All the four-wheel-drive Land-Rovers in of Jdiria, evacuated by the Moroccans last Sull, the wealth of detail provided by which I rode had Moroccan markings; the summer. Mr McGiven cannot but prove an embarsame was true for the Polisario supply “The Moroccan withdrawal had great rassment. Dons has taken the unusual trucks in the battle zones. Back at symbolic value for us," one guerrilla com step of issuing a lengthy statement admitPolisario base camps in Algeria, hundreds mented, “for Jdiria was the first Saharan ting that he was on its staff but seeking to of captured trucks, jeeps, Land-Rovers, and town they occupied in 1975." play down his position. Predictably, the armored cars are displayed for the visiting Dynamited by the Moroccans, Jdiria was statement tried to denigrate Mr McGiven journalist. My guide was most proud of a shambles. A ghost-town atmosphere floated by making vague allusions to his private the five ultramodern. French-Austrian SK-105 over the rubble. In one half-destroyed bar life--and blamed him for failing to contanks seized intact. racks I was able to make out a pathetic vey to his superiors his "impression that The number of captured machine guns, inscription scrawled on the wall in French the department was acting beyond its mortars, artillery pieces, and antiaircraft by a distressed Moroccan soldier: "My legal powers." guns taken from the Moroccans is also dear daughter, Fatiha, I know you are impressive. Many of the Moroccan prisoners waiting to see me again one day. Your of war with whom I was able to speak unlucky father." Dons is only one of the arms of governfreely made no secret of the fact that The war is now far from Jdiria, but ment security. With military intelligence they simply abandoned their arms when the its grim remnants linger: a graveyard con- and the security police running their own Polisario force attacked. taining 32 headstones of Moroccan soldiers shows, the total number of informers and "The Army feels hamstrung in the and the rusting hulks of military vehicles the extent of surveillance can only be Saharan war." said Lt. Abdisalem Boukili, scattered around the town. The same dis guessed at. South Africa's security police, captured during the battle of Bir Enziran quieting scene was repeated in the other in particular, are empowered to act within August, “because no major move can Saharan towns - Farsia. Haousa, Amgala, in the framework of laws which would be be made without approval from the King's and Tifariti which I visited. the envy of many a dictatorial regime. Page 9
MUGABE GETS A NEAR-RIOTOUS WELCOME HOME TO RHODESIA (Continued) thing is done about it." he says is the intimidation of voters by Salisbury-trained paramilitary force that Mr. Mugabe also took the British to competing political parties. numbers about 25,000. Under the cease- task for delaying his return to Salisbury. “Bishop Muzorewa is a coward," Mr. fire accord, the auxiliaries, referred to by He said he was told last Sunday that he Mugabe said. "He's afraid. He now sees Bishop Muzorewa's opponents as the could not return because the Rev. Ndaba. how the elections are going. He is going to “Bishop's private army," are supposed ningi Sithole, a veteran activist who is to remain within one-half mile of their campaigning for the elections, had Between eight and 20 cease-fire viola bases, a stipulation that is widely ig. booked Zimbabwe Grounds, the popular nored. tions are reported each day in Salisbury by the combined operations command, “He should be the last man to point a rallying spot in Highpoint Township where Mr. Mugabe's welcome was with usually at least one death in what the finger," Mr. Mugabe said of Bishop Mu- staged today. military calls "contacts." These contacts zorewa. "His auxiliaries are out in force. “This is a reason given by a sane Gov. are between the Rhodesian regular Can anyone tell us the Rhodesians are in emor?" he asked. “That because some forces, whom the Governor has called on their barracks." He said that while his one is holding a rally someone else cannot to enforce the cease-fire, and either Mr. guerrillas had “slavishly adhered to the come into his own country? Now that I Nkomo's wing of the guerrilla alliance or cease-fire," the Bishop's forces were am having a raily, should Muzorewa and Mr. Mugabe's. There are 21.000 guerril. committing "barbarous acts." Sithole be forced to leave the country?" las in assembly camps in Rhodesia, and While insisting that he was "bent on up The 55-year-old nationalist did not men the British estimate that there are an holding the cease-fire,” Mr. Mugabe im tion the question of detainees in Mozam. other 3,000 still in the bush. plied that there could be trouble unless bique, which was at the heart of the delay the auxiliaries were contained. “There in his return. The British used clearance Auxiliarles Pose a Problem has to be some action taken against for his trip as leverage in securing the deA serious issue for the Patriotic Front them," he said. “I must be sure some tainees'freedom. January 27, 1980 uit schools; he possesses degrees in economics, history and Latin.) It seems apparent that Zimbabwe will be blessed with competent leader- elections and you people believe in elections; that's why we need your ship as a result of the election and that any coalition or personality that as sumes power will join a Southern will soon culminate in a truly inde Africa bloc that has been very pro pendent Zimbabwe in next month's United States and anxious to establish elections. economic ties to the West. The pattern The West's stakes have always been of rail and road transportation make it inevitable that even the most militant leadership work out a pragmatic rela- tionship with South Africa as did the militant Government of Mozambique. deposits, tremendous agricultural By Andrew Young Zimbabwe will begin with a greater civil service, in Tanzania, Kenya, Bot. plex interests of racial, business and per-capita trained black leadership swana, Zambia and Zimbabwe Rhode- ethnic groupings. and a larger black middle class than sia. Angola and Mozambique, former Once again there is a tendency to any other African nation at the time of Portuguese colonies, while close to the Soviet Union and Cuba remain re- count out Bishop Abel Muzorewa as its independence. having delivered Mr. Smith but failed The Patriotic Front's military lead- markably supportive of Western at- to end the war. Everybody agrees that ers have worked willingly with the the dominant voting theme is that British in maintaining the cease-fire there be peace and stability. The and have emerged as soldier-statessively seek private investors for their Bishop has made a contribution to men in the peace process. development efforts. Zimbabwe's independence that his- Zimbabwe is, however, the political One burly bearded guerrilla leader pulled me aside during negotiation at- tempts in Malta in 1978 and, as I preture. seems protected by a shroud of inno pared to be attacked as a “tool of im- cence. Some forces would like to see common political force under Mr. him in coalition with Mr. Nkomo but perialism," he quietly asked: "What really happened to the Oakland Raid- the personal animosity over the Bish- President Samora Michel of Mozam- ers? They were supposed to be in the Super Bowl!” Like many of his fel- lows, he had studied in America for makes that an impossible combina- Namibia (South West Africa). The nine years and had made many friends tion. coming Zimbabwe elections bring a there. Later I was able to identify at Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe Afri. least 30 Patriotic Front freedom fight- ers with postgraduate degrees from American universities. The British Commonwealth Office has identified 7,000 exiles who have degrees beyond votes is still an open question. Mr. Mu- food, education, health and housing for gabe, with whom the Bishop keeps in the college level who are planning to their citizens. touch, is most feared by the white mi- retum to an independent Zimbabwe. Joshua Nkomo seems to be the im- nority and the British, but in 1977 when I have no illusions - the road to together a coalition to govern. He is Mugabe but hastened to add that while Andrew Young, the United States' for- also skilled at working out the compro he may be the most disciplined and m- mer chief representative at ihe United mises necessary to protect the com- telligent he was not a good politician. Nations, is a guest columnist. Page 10
THE EVOLUTION OF A DECISION (Continued) security arrangement are laid aside raeli peace and internal collapse ja while Carte: negotiated the final "was very, very sobering, causing Saudi Arabia, could gravely damage terms of the Egyptian-Israeli peace some very, very serious rethinking of the position of the West. There was treaty, which was signed March 26. our ability to project power to that area to protect our interests," said a no mention of a Soviet invasion of Af. The controversial treaty split the military official who was involved. In ghanistan, but the possibility was Arab world, with Egypt on one side foreseen that the projection of Soviet and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and most a meeting with Defense. Secretary Brown and the uniformed Joint force in unspecified fashion closer to others on the other side and bitterly Chiefs of Staff at Camp David Nov. the center of the region could bring critical. The prospect of regional ar 24, Carter ordered a full report on about a new crisis. rangements involving Egypt and Is what could be done quickly to provide rael as well as the Saudis and Jordan The “security framework" to shore emergency U.S. operating access to up friendly nations and augment U.S. was reduced to the vanishing point. the region-overflights of friendly napower was conceived as a loosely con Senior policymakers focused their tions, transit and operating facilities structed yet clearly cooperative ar. attention on the area again last sum. available to U.S. forces. rangement among moderate states, in. mer, when long gasoline lines in many cluding Egypt, Israel and Jordan. Saparts of the United States emphasized The answers were anything but re udi Arabia would be closely associ. anew the vital role of imported oil. In assuring. An aircraft carrier task ated but treated as a special case in Cabinet-level session in the White force including the USS Küty Hawk House situation room last June 21 and entered the Indian Ocean Nov. 24 to view of its sensibilities regarding any association with Israel. Peripheral 22, then-Secretary of Energy James R. join the carrier USS Midway and its Schlesinger dr., declared flatly that if task force, which was altydy in the states in the area, including Morocco, the oil of the Persian Gul were inter. area. Just sustaining the ships, to Sudan and Turkey, would play a co rupted, the West was finished. say nothing of bringing in de sort of operative role and benefit from U.S. aid and arms. Schlesinger suggested an increase major ground combat one which in U.S. military power in the region to would be required for assault opera. U.S. forces in the area and facilities balance that of the Soviets, but Brzez tions, was difficult. for their support would have to be in. inski thought this was a flawed con. creased. Oman would be brought into ception. The area is vital to the the alliance, and given protection and At a National Security Council United States and its allies, but not to assistance. The overall cost of military meeting on Dec. 4, it was decided to the Soviets, and therefore Uncle Sam assistance would be $10 billion to $15 should aim for clear superority, ac. initiate exploration of imp#oved U.S. billion over five years, in addition to cording to the national security ad access to military facilities as the word existing outlays. The greater part of viser. "bases,” is anathema indre Third the buildup, though, would be in such World-and to do so quickly. Success In view of the far-reaching nature U.S. elements as the “rapid deploy. in this quest would placemene United of the White House discussions, the ment force," based at home but ready States in position to sustain larger operational decisions seemed modest. to move to trouble spots abroad. American forces in the region on a Working from a four-option Pentagon This outline of a more muscular routine, regular basis. paper, the president's National SecuU.S. role was hardly out of the type. rity Council committee recommended The State Department began studwriter when a sudden challenge from the most gradual increase offered in ies, and some objections were heard the region tested Washington's new visible American power in the region. about the probable reactiphs and pothinking. Border war flared between Specifically, the advisers proposed litical complications that would arise. South Yemen, which had experienced -and Carter later ordered that the A meeting of Brzezinski, Brown and a buildup of Soviet and Cuban force, number of regular U.S. naval task Secretary of State Cyrus 8. Vance de and North Yemen, which had closer force annual deployments in the In cided that exploration for facilities ties to Saudi Arabia. dian Ocean be increased from three to should proceed, and on Friday, Dec. On Feb. 28, the Saudis pushed the four. 14, Carter decreed that a team should panic button, as ah American official go_at once. After a frants weekend, Some of the participants also re. would later describe it, canceling all the group was in the Monday commended, though full agreement military leaves in anticipation of a So headed for Saudi Atabia. Onani , Soma. viet-backed invasion of its territory. on this was less than clear, that the lia and Kenya. The Saudi officials informed the United States move toward a sus The study team was just back from United States privately that the mo tained presence in the area with the middle East when thę Soviet Unment of truth for American loyalty larger naval forces as soon as feasible. ion began its large-scale.molift into was at hand. On July 9, after the White House deci. Afghanistan Dec. 24. The coup in Ka. sion, a 'five-ship task force of combat After an emergency National Secu. bul and the overland invasion by So vessels entered the Indian Ocean for rity Council meeting, Carter ordered viet ground forces starting Dec. 27 what the Navy called "routine opera• the aircraft carrier Constellation to left senior U.S. officials i more con tions." steam to the Arabian Sea from the cerned than ever. Sudderdy. the real Philippines, dispatched two U.S. Air At the same meetings, new military danger of a Soviet push to the Persian Force air warfare control planes to sales totaling $1.2 billion were ap Gulf added to internal inflability, jitSaudi Arabia, offered to send land. proved for Saudi Arabia, and more ters and pncertainty in the trea about based tactical Air Force jets if the Air Force “demonstration" visits to the U.S. role. Arab countries were approved. But The strategy of long-term U.S. in. Saudis wished, and ordered up'an additional $400 million in U.S. weaponry the most important result, in retro volvement in the region outlined in for North Yemen on an emergency ba spect, was acceptance of the principle last night's State of the Union adthat greater U.S. military strength in dress, was adopted by the high policy sis. the area was needed. officials after his address to the naThe brief but intense display of U.S. The next major episode, and proba tion Jan. 4 'on the Soviet ibvasion. forcefulness sent tremors through the bly the most important, began with ., It was decided that Carter would area. Two traditional rivals, Iraq and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in speak to the nation to amounce the Syria, joined in mediation between the Tehran Nov. 4, and the inner circle new strategic i importance being acYemens before hostilities could get discussions of the options for military corded to the vast region stretching out of hand. The political maneuver action. An entebbe-type-rald is re through the Middle East through ing has continued since, with the two ported to have been immediately Southwest Asia." Carter Uked the Yemens shifting toward an alliance or ruled out as not feasible, but as weeks speech written for this purose better unification, North Yemen receiving passed with no sign of resolution the than those which had been submitted new Soviet aid on top of the U.S. aid. military options, came urder careful for the State of the Uniga, so he deThe Saudis are still apprehensive, study. cided to start his fourth in ofsice though no longer in high alarm. After the Yemen episode early last The practical problem of applying with dedarations about a dogion halfMarch, U.S. plans for a new regional U.S. military might in this region way around the world. Page 11
FROM A SALISBURY CORRESPONDENT
Smith Says Victory
THE WASHINGTON POST THE ECONOMIST JANUARY 26, 1980 The voters' choice Seven hundred candidates representing Mr Henry Chihota, this is conservative nine political parties will compete on February 27th-29th for the 80 black seats in outlook and appeals mainly to the in Zimbabwe's parliament. The country Zezuru people. To general surprise it has been divided into eight electoral got 18,000 votes in Mashonaland in last districts and seven of the parties have April's election, but it is not thought By Jay Ross put forward party lists for each district. likely to make much impact this time round. Washington Post Foreign Service Seats will be allocated in proportion to Patriotic Front. Mr Joshua Nkomo SALISBURY. Rhodesia, Jan. 31 Former prime the number of votes recorded for each has registered his party, formerly the party in each district. minister Ian Smith moved today to break the white Zimbabwe African People's Union minority's political partnership with Bishop Abel an electoral roll, the 3m eligible voters (Zapu), under this title. It is held by Muzorewa by urging Rhodesian whites to vote for will be required to identify themselves many Shona people to be a Ndebele Patriotic Front guerrilla leader Joshua Nkomo if that and show that they are 18 or 'over. The party, although the majority of its cen tral committee is Shona (the Shona would prevent a Marxist government from coming to election is being supervised by a Briton, make up 80% of Zimbabwe's total popupower here. Sir John Boynton, and a team of 79 lation, the Ndebele 14%). Lower-rank. Smith's move caused an immediate uproar among British supervisors. A team of 11 senior ing members, however, are almost ex Commonwealth representatives, headed the leading black parties here. A spokesman for by a former Indian foreign minister, Mr clusively Ndebele. Standing somewhat Muzorewa bitterly Jenounced the former political left of centre, and with friends in both Rajeshwar Dayal, left London on leader of the whites, saying Smith was being “absolute Russia and Britain, it favours a mix of Wednesday for Salisbury. Its job will be ly dangerous and mischievous." to report to the Commonwealth heads of free enterprise and state economics. United African National Council. Led The wily leader of the Rhodesian whites who led government whether, in its opinion, the the country to illegal independence in 1965 made it elections were free and fair. by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, it won the election last April (in which Mr Nkoclear that his support for Nkomo would be only to The seven parties putting up candiblock Robert Mugabe, a Marxist and coleader of the dates in all eight electoral districts are mo's and Mr Mugabe's parties did not take part). Although it could emerge guerrillas, from gaining power. (in alphabetical order): again as the largest parliamentary party, National Democratic Union. Led by its record in office has disappointed the Smith told white voters that he whites in the 100-member Parliapent. urban middle class and the radical would like to avoid them both but if Thus, if the whites join with a coali young. It has strong backing from local, tion of black parties having a total you have to choose between them then and South African, business interests. cf 31 seats, they could guarantee ... Nkomo is the better bet." Elections Its appeal will be strongest among the their black partners an absolute are set for Feb. 27 to 29. Many of the majority even if Mugabe alone won Manyika people in Mashonaland. 200,000 whites would find it difficult to Zimbabwe African National Union. Its a majority of the black seats. support Nkomo, since his forces shot With nine black parties running un leader, Mr Ndabaningi Sithole, claims down two Rhodesian airliners in the der a proportional representation sys that his party is the true Zanu and that last 18 months, killing about 100 Mr Mugabe's party is a usurper. It has tem, it appears unlikely that any one whites. party will gain an overall majority. members from all tribes, but Ndau from Some whites have threatened to Shifting of alliances is likely before the Chipanga area (a Shona sub-group) kill the veteran nationalist leader, formation of a government. predominate. Centrist in Outlook, it who has been surrounded by heavy could play a role in a future coalition Nkomo, who has fought for black security since his return from exile government. It won 11 seats last April; earlier this month. majority rule for almost three dec although unlikely to do so well next ades, would also be a key figure in month, it could present a challenge to There have been indications in recent weeks that Smith was planany bargaining. Smith and Nkomo fre Mr Mugabe in traditional Zanu areas. ning to jerk the rug out from under quently flirted with an alliance in the Zimbabwe African National Union-PaMuzorewa, believing that Muzorewa triotic Front. Mr Robert Mugabe's party past before the white leader reached would not be able to defeat Mugabe Continued on Pg. 11 or Nkomo. an "internal" settlement with Muzo Lord Suames. The governor's office isrewa almost two years ago that cven: Until the campaigri speech yester sued a statement saying Soames "extually led to the bishop being elected day and further clarification today, pressed grave concern at the level of prime minister. however, Smith had refrained from political intimidation, especially in any public shift of stance-limiting Muzorewa's party, the United Af the eastern province." a Mugabe his remarks to criticism of the bishop rican National Council, was quick to stronghold, “and urged Mr. Mugabe to for being a weak leader. condemn Smith. Ernest Bulle, the do all in his power to see that it party's vice president, called Smith a But yesterday Smith told ceased forthwith." an audience of about 75 whites, “we must “master of political intrigue, both dan No such 'sharp statements had been do all we can to stop” Mugabe from gerous and mischievious," adding that issued after Soames' earlier meetings winning. "The important thing is: "he has no part to play" in the future with Muzorewa and Nkomo. of Rhodesia. At his press conference. Mugabe reKeep the people away from the Marxist,” Smith said. A spokesman for Nkomo's Patriotic iterated criticism of Soames for de. “The choice could even be beFront described the move as “unwel ploying Rhodesian security forces and tween Mugabe and Nkomo. This may come support. He's a nothing-people troops loyal to Muzorewa against the sound distasteful to guerrillas and repeated charges that some people know his time has passed." who have been on the receiving end, Mugabe, speaking at a press confer 6,000 South African troops remain in such as the Viscount (airliner) disence, brought home the danger to the country. asters ... but the best choice could Nkomo saying: “The more one accepts Mugabe said he was "disillusioned be Nkomo." to be sponsored by Mr. Smith and the about the lack of honesty on the part Citing how West Germany had reRhodesia Front, then the greater the of British officials." conciled with its enemies in the danger of his destruction as a political "Rhodesian troops are closing in” West after World War II, Smith said, leader. on the 22,000 guerrillas assembled in "we must be realistic." “Mr. Smith has politically slain camps, he said, adding that he feared Smith has considerable power to quite a number of leaders in this that "they will be annihilated.” affect the outcome of the election, country. [Ndabaningi) Sithole is gone, Mugabe also complained of the because of the complex voting system slain by him; [James Chikerema is governor's plans to call up thousands established as part of the London of reservists before the election. gone, slain by him; Muzorewa is gone, peace settlement signed last month. “We wonder what they are trying slain by him. Who is next?” His Rhodesia Front Party is cer Page 12
KEY DATES OF 1979 Central Africa (CONTINUED) sions which erupt in civil war before the by the Mobil Oil Corporation. month's end. September 20 - Former Central African January 18-20 Student demonstrations in President David Dacko, overthrown i 4 years the Central African Empire against mandatory earlier by his cousin, the self-proclaimed school uniforms, which few in the country can Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa, is restored to afford, begin peacefully. But by the end of the power in a bloodless coup carried out with the weekend at least 12 students are dead and support of French troops. several hundred are injured by security forces. September 30 - Macias Nguema, deposed February 8 - Two days after President president of Equatorial Guinea, is executed Joachim Yhombi-Opango resigns, Col. Denis after a trial judged to be fair by international Sassou-Nguesso is appointed Congolese head observers. of state. At its late March con October 21 Government officials in Camegress, the Congo Labor Party roon deny French reports that some 200 vilorders the seizure of all Yhombi lagers were massacred by security forces in Opango's property and decides Ndole, on the northern border. They claim to prosecute him for high treason. that 30 people were killed in a local dispute. March A year of drought in Zaire is cited as causing food November The International Federation shortages in Kinshasa as serious for the Rights of Man reports that Zairian as those of the Sahelian drought troops massacred over 200 schooichildren and in the early 70s. 15 fishermen in Kasai Province on July 19. March 6 – Fighting is renewed Zairian officials deny these allegations, reportin Chad's capital, and Habre's ing that two or three deaths occurred in pursuit forces seize the National Guard of diamond smugglers. They invite an internaheadquarters. Later in the month tional investigation. President Malloum flees the November 4 Ange Patasse, former prime country as Goukouni Oueddei of minister and a major Central African opposithe Chad National Liberation tion leader, is captured at the Chad border Front(FROLINAT)takes charge. after defying a house arrest order, and is April 18 More than 140 Cen accused of plotting to overthrow Dacko's govtral African children are mur ernment with the help of Cuba and Libya. He, dered in Bangui's central prison. his family, and other supporters are thrown Later investigations by Amnesty into prison. International and an African November 30 - Nine Western countries commission allege that Emperor pledge over $320 million to help Zaire's balBokassa was personally involved. ance of payments problem, tying this aid to April 29 - Chad's provisional state council, continued cooperation with the IMF. including Habre and Goukouni, announces December 30 — Elections are held in Gabon, formation of a new national unity government, with incumbent head of state Bongo the only headed by Lol Mohammed Shawa, a political presidential candidate. unknown. Wadel Kamougue, an influential West Africa southerner who served under Malloum's military regime, is excluded, and the new govern April 14 – In Liberia, demonstrators protestment fails to gain diplomatic recognition from ing proposed price increases for rice defy a key west African states. government ban and march on the Executive July 13 - The president of Equatorial Guinea, Mansion. More than 40 are killed and hunMacias Nguema Biyogo, executes all involved dreds wounded as crowds loot and burn their in an aborted assassination attempt intended way through downtown Monrovia after police for late June. fire on them. August 3 Defense Minister Teodoro Ngue April 22 — Charging violations on tax laws, Electoral Nigeria's Federal Commission ma, who has largely run Equatorial Guinea since an attempted coup three years ago, leads (FEDECO) disqualifies two of the five presithe overthrow of his cousin, Macias. dential candidates, Alhaji Aminu Kano (PeoAugust 21 – The fourth Chadian reconcilia ple's Redemption Party) and Dr. Nnamdi Azition conference in Lagos, Nigeria, concludes kiwe (Nigerian People's Party). Both are later reinstated. with nine of the country's rival political groups agreeing on a new national unity government May 1 Ghana's military government, under headed by Queddei, with Kamougue as vice General Fred Akuffo, releases former head of president. state General I. K. Acheampong from preven tive custody but continues to restrict his moveAugust 27 The International Monetary Fund signs an interim agreement to forward ments. Some politicians demand that he be brought to trial on corruption charges. Zaire $153 million over the next 18 months. Earlier in the year the Fund refused to sign the May 15 - Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings agreement until President Mobutu Sese Seko launches an unsuccessful coup attempt against agreed to comply with its program of long-term Ghana's Supreme Military Council and is court martialed. economic reform. August 29 – The discovery of high quality June 4 Freed from prison with the help of crude oil off Cameroonian shores is announced 19 Continued on Pg. Page 13
Tome gather in Luanda for a summit meeting. KEY DATES IN 1979 (CONTINUED) June 11 — PAC leader David Sibeko is killed October 11 – Rhodesian forces destroy key in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an apparent railway and road bridges linking Zambia with internal dispute. Only 10 days later, PAC Tanzania, but Zambia goes ahead with a plan to defendants in the “Bethal 18" trial are con import vitally needed grain from South Africa victed by South African authorities of "terror through Rhodesia. ism." October 20— Black American John Tate fights June 22 Piet Koornhof, South African white South African Gerrie Coetzee in Pretoria Minister of Cooperation and Development, despite widespread protest. Tate wins. tours U.S. declaring "apartheid is dying. October 20 Botswana President Seretse June 28 — In a compromise resolution, the Khama's Botswana Democratic Party easily U.S. House of Representatives agrees to carries off an election victory. extend sanctions on Rhodesia through October October 25 — U.S. reports a September 22 15 (conference committee later extends the flash detected by satellite, indicating a nuclear period to November 15). explosion off the South African coast. July 26 - Angolan President Agostinho Neto November 2— ANC guerrillas attack a second dissolves the Department of Information and SOWETO police station, killing two police. November 5 – Rhodesia cuts off transit for Security (DISA). In his speech, Neto refers to grain deliveries to Zambia and follows up with charges of abuse of authority, and he stresses punishing raids cutting almost all crucial transthe need to build national unity. August 9-10 — In Lusaka, bowing to pressure November 12-15 — Talks in Geneva on Namiat the Commonwealth conference, British bia manage to attract all parties, but South Prime Minister Thatcher accepts a plan for an Africa subsequently raises new questions about all-parties conference to settle the war in the DMZ concept, accepted in principle by Rhodesia. SWAPO. November 15 James Mange, ANC guerAugust 3 Jesse Jackson returns from a rilla, is sentenced to death under South Africa controversial trip to South Africa. treason laws after closed trial with 11 other August 15 – U.S. UN Ambassador Andrew ANC members. Young resigns after controversy over talks with November 22 - South African Prime Minister a PLO representative. Before being replaced P.W. Botha meets with top business leaders by his deputy Donald McHenry in late Sep and gets support for his “total strategy" of tember, Young leads an American trade dele limited reform, opposition to one man, one gation to eight African nations, clinching vote," counter-insurgency and a “constellaseveral lucrative deals. tion" of states in the region tied to South Africa. August 30— Fluor, the American construction November 30 - Prime Minister Botha admits giant involved in the SASOL 2 synthetic fuel that South African security forces have been project in South Africa, announces an agree operating in Rhodesia. ment covering future use of SASOL tech December 21 A compromise settlement nology in the U.S. agreement on Rhodesia is signed in London, September -- Rhodesia attacks Mozambique's providing for a constitution reducing but not Limpopo Valley, a major ijod-growing area, eliminating special privileges for whites; for a early in the month, causing some $37 million in transition and new elections presided over by a damage. Later attacks on ZANU and Mozain British governor and Commonwealth monibican military installations near Chimoio, tors; and for a cease-fire confining Rhodesian however, are repulsed with heavy losses in troops to bases, and assembling Patriotic Front aircraft and personnel. guerrillas in 16 assembly points. September 10— Angolan President Agostinho (This section of chronology was prepared Neto dies of cancer at age 56, and is replaced with the aid of the year-end issue of Southern within days by successor Jose Eduardo dos Africa magazine. — Ed.] Santos, chosen by the MPLA Central Com CHRISTIAN SCENCE MONTOR January 31, 1980 mittee. Rhodesian wants troops unified September 10 Conference on the future of Nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo has demanded immediate steps to Rhodesia opens in London. With backers of convert the various hostile armies in Rhodesia into one single force beboth sides concerned with the escalating war, tore next month's pre-independence election. The Patriotic Front alliance there is strong pressure for a compromise coloader, pursuing the conciliatory line he has adopted since returning agreement. from exile three weeks ago, said the new state of Zimbabwe could not September 13 - South Africa declares the "go to independence with a multiplicity of forces." (Rhodesia will be Venda reserve independent, the third of the called Zimbabwe after independence.) African “homelands” to accept such status. He told a news conference he wanted to see moves toward "creating the nucleus of one army in the next few weeks.” If the new government September 26 — South...rican aircraft bomb inherits the hostility existing between the Rhodesian forces and the two Lubango, the capital of Angola's Huila prov rival Patriotic Front armies, he said, “they will be setting a monster on ince. themselves." October 1- Details of the new Western/UN He said the issue was already being discussed by the all-party coase plan for a Namibian settlement are released, fire commission, but a British spokesman declined to confirm this. incorporating an earlier Angolan proposal for a Mr. Nkomo said he has taken action to stop breaches of the 4 1/2“demilitarized zone” (DMZ), but several am week-odd ceasefire by guerrillas loyal to him, and he urged other parties to do the same. biguous points raise questions both for SWAPO According to figures released by the British authorities Tuesday, there and for South Africa. have been 78 violations of the cease-fire. Page 14
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR February 5, 1980
S. Africa's opposition raising voice?
By Humphrey Tyler Special to The Christian Science Monitor Cape Town A major row may develop in the South African Parliament this week when the youthful new leader of the main white opposition party introduces a motion of no confidence in the ruling National Party government. This no-confidence vote is a traditional measure at the start of a new parliamentary session, but the government is particularly sensitive to criticism this year because it is being forced to backtrack on a number of ideological issues, especially racial problems. Also, it expects to be hammered because of disclosures that the secret police have been allowed to snoop on opposition political parties, including opposition members of Parliament. Prime Minister Pieter Botha, who sometimes is referred to irreverently as “Piet Vesuvius” because of his quick temper, dislikes criticism in the best of times and is considered particularly touchy when put on the defensive. Mr. Botha may well find his patience stretched thin. And the opposition Progressive Federal Party, although it has only a handful of seats (17 compared to 135 for the National Party), includes some of the most able debaters in Parliament. This year they have a new leader, Dr. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, a vigorous former academic who has caught the popular imagination of government opponents after a string of lively public meetings around the country. Unlike his predecessor, Colin Eglin, Dr. Slabbert has an impeccable Afrikaans background, which is vitally important for a political leader in this country where more than 60 percent of the voters are Afrikaners - and often extremely suspicious of any politician who is not. Although the government has an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament, it is going into the new session rather defensively. The root of its problem is that its policy of apartheid (enforced social, economic, and political racial segregation) is collapsing in various ways. The Prime Minister himself has acknowledged that there have to be changes and has promised to get rid of the “offensive" things in South Africa's way of life. But he dare not go too fast to break down a system that his own party has carefully built up year after year for the more than 30 years it has been in power. National Party leaders are trying to prepare their followers for change by emphasizing that the old policies must be “renewed”
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA more intractable the crisis in Iran, the Pretoria's tax coffers are already overflowing with the Government's slice of gold-mine earnings, and the latest projections are that the most recent surge in the price of gold will double the more than I billion that the Government originally expected to receive in gold-mine taxes and lease payments in fiscal 1979-80. Moreover, if golds holds at an average price of no more than $400. this year, South Africa's real economic growth will probably be a full 1 percentage point higher than the 5 percent already expected, giving it one of the best economic performances in the West. With such a natural resource, the rising price of oil poses little obstacle to South Africa's eco nomic growth. Earnings from gold exports alone not only cover the intry's entire oil bil, but also pay for all its imports - a situation that was expected to produce a current account surplus of more than $3.5 billion for 1979. Gold, of course, is not South Africa's only mineral export; uranium, platinum and coal also produce healthy earnings. Their rising prices have helped the country reverse what used to be recurring current account deficits brought on by a high level of imports. Now, everyone is speculating excitedly about what the finance minister, Senator Owen Hor. wood, plans to do with the gold revenues when he presents his 1980-81 budget at the end of March. "Most people think Christmas is coming in March this year," said one financial commentator. Another, half tongue-in-cheek, had Senator Horwood abolishing personal income tax. Mr. Horwood is not short of advice. Most of the country's voteless blacks would no doubt like to see him pumping millions into wiping out the huge shortage of housing and inadequacies in education. Soweto, the million-plus black dormitory township outside Johannesburg where grievances erupted into violence in June 1976, is on the brink of financial chaos, and many people argue that the Government must come to its assistance with large subsidies. After defense demands have been met, black hous ing and education will no doubt get something frota Continued on Pg. 6 and implemented more “positively.” They The National Party is apprehensive about also call for a “normalization" of race rela this, and the Afrikaans newspapers that suptions and racial “reconciliation." port the party have been warning in chorus of While right-wing whites remain stub- the “dangers” of making changes at "an unbornly suspicious of all this, blacks are be- realistic speed." coming more and more impatient about talk So there seems little likelihood in this sesof ending discrimination without the govern sion of Parliament that the government will ment doing very much about this in practice. amend fundamental apartheid laws, such as Dr. Slabbert is expected to warn the gov the Race Classification Act, the Mixed Marernment about increasing black impatience riages Act (which forbids whites and blacks and anger and to challenge it to actually intro- to marry one another), or the Group Areas duce changes, instead of just talking about Act, which separates black and white living them. Page 15
Rhodesia's fragile peace Henry Brandon:
THE NEW YORK TIMES THE WASHINGTON STAR February 7, 1980 Considering how many the Rhodesian and South those who claim to be familthings could have gone iar with the bush telegraph Rhodesian Election wrong, the fragile cease-fire expect Nkomo to win more in Zimbabwe Rhodesia has Does Rhodesia want seats in the assembly than By WILLIAM BORDERS worked surprisingly well his two opponents. It came Special to The New York Times under the colonial overlord. conipromise, or will as a great surprise to every: LONDON, Feb. 6 - Lord Carrington, ship of British Gov. Lord tribal rivalries lead body when Ian Smith, the the British Foreign Secretary, today ac- Soames. If there is an old. former Rhodesian prime cused the forces of. Robert Mugabe, the fashioned, yet modern to civil war? minister, came out publicly guerrilla leader who is a candidate in the Rhodesian election, of "large-scale inthinking, viceroy figure left in support of Mr. Nkomo. He timidation" of voters and of violating the in the British Isles, it is wanted to give a signal to cease-fire accords. Soames; and, no doubt, it African whites who have the white farmers to tell “People have been told that if they do was one of the reasons be equipped him with two heli. their workers not to vote for not vote according to the wishes of a was chosen. copters and a light plane Mugabe's extreme radical. party, the war will continue, or they will Long before his latest ap- ism. be killed," Lord Carrington said. “This is pointment he once defined Yet he finds this is not Whether he hurt or a matter of great concern." leadership to me: “It's very His statement, to the House of Lords, enough. He belongs to the helped Nkomo remains to be simple,” he said. “You have was Britain's most substantial departure same tribe as Mugabe, seen. To Bishop Muzorewa it to know who you are and so far from the careful posture of even which accounts for three must have come as a shock. what you want." handedness that it has observed since One of his superiors in quarters of the electorate, Smith is afraid that the achieving the accord late in December Whitehall, when he in. but his opponent seems to bishop is too weak and vacil. under which the elections are being held. be more popular with them. lating to be able to cope with He said that whereas the supporters of formed him of his appoint. Both Mugabe and Nkomo the perilous postelectoral Joshua Nkomo, the other guerrilla lead- ment, put it more face are socialists, both are situation which could easily er, had observed the terms of the agree tiously: "We chose you preaching moderation, but deteriorate into civil war, ment, “certainly the supporters of Mr. because you are taller than Mugabe is considered much while Nkomo is considered Mugabe have not." most people in Rhodesia, be. “There are thousands of his supporters the strongest personality more radical. cause you have a strong outside the assembly points,” the For. Still, on paper, he has the and the more reasonable voice that can overshout a eign Secretary said, referring to the best chance to win. But Continued on Pg. 7 places where guerrillas were to report crowd and because you are under the cease-fire. arrogant enough." SOUTH AFRICA'S GILDING Countryside Mainly Affected Despite all the joshing, (Continued) the finance minister. But the best-informed bets intimidation was taking place in the rural where: enforcing a cease. financial and political circles are that the bigger areas, and that there were parts of the fire and overseeing an elec handouts will be in the form of further cuts in percountryside in which it had become im tion in a country about as sonal and corporate taxes (the former already down possible for Mr. Nkomo or Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa, the third principal candidate, large as California, with in the past two years from a top marginal rate of 88 to hold election ineetings. only about 1,200 Common- percent to 55 percent). Making a general progress report three wealth monitoring forces But tax cuts would not go far in solving South Afriweeks before the elections are to begin, available, far less than in ca's serious unemployment problem. The GovernLord Carrington also called the recent de any remotely comparable ment's latest ten-year economic development pro bate on Rhodesia in the United Nations U.Þ. peace-keeping opera gram concedes that, even if economic growth averSecurity Council “one-sided and absurdly tion. Some 22,000 guerillas, ages an expected 412 percent per year over the tenselective.' anxious to come home, gave year period, unemployment will rise from about He said: “It is ironic that the British 200,000 to 1.6 million, or from 10.6 percent of the up their arms and willingly Government, which is trying, in the most potential workforce to 15 percent. Most of the unem retreated to 14 assembly cen. difficult circumstances, to hold free and ployed are blacks, and, according to the Gover ters. Some 5,000 of Mugabe's fair elections in Rhodesia, should be lec ment, 51 percent of these jobless blacks have been tured by countries who would not know a guerrillas, however, have looking for work for more than six months, and 24 free and fair election if they saw it.” refused to do that, and their percent for more than a year. Furthermore, most of By a vote of 14 to 0, with Britain not vot. leader, despite strong repri. them are under 30 years of age. ing, the Security Council adopted a reso mands by the governor, is Studies by some labor economists paint an even lution on Saturday calling on Britain to not doing anything about it. gloomier picture: They say that one black in four is take steps that would insure fair elections The obvious suspicion is in Rhodesia. Although the resolution was already jobless, and that four out of 10 will be by the that he may be keeping an implied rebuke, the British objected year 2000. them available in case he Yet, while even Government ministers have even more strongly to some of the debate loses the elections. warned of the revolutionary dangers of high black that preceded the vote, including attacks The politics of the Zim. from Tanzania, East Germany and the unemployment, certain policies have the effect of babwe bush are a bitter con. Soviet Union. making joblessness even higher than it would other test, a mixture of tribal and "Such polemics can only increase ten wise be. sion and make the implementation of the political rivalries. Bishop Chief of these is the strict enforcement of a systern settlement more difficult," said Lord Abel Muzorewa, who volun. in which employers in the so-called white urban Carrington, who was chairman of the tarily gave up his prime areas who are caught employing blacks who lack ofRhodesia constitutional conference, and ministership in the first ficial permission to be in those areas have been sub the man chiefly credited with its success. biracial government, finds ject to a stiff fine. It was recently raised fivefold. He deplored the continuing violence in himself on the defensive The effect of this is that many employers, rather the election campaign, including the gre- against his two rivals, Rob than run the risk of paying the higher fine, simply nade attack early today on Mr. Mugabe's ert Mugabe and Joshua dismiss the employees involved. These jobless workhome in Rhodesia, but he said that “the Nkomo. He fields the best ers then face deportation to one of the impoveriod number of incidents and of casualties re- organized political party, main far below those prevailing before nural Bantustan "homeiands” sent up by the Govern and he has the support of the cease-fire came into force." ment for the resettlement of blacks. O Page 16
IVORY COAST (Cocoa, Coffee, and Prosperity (Continued)
Other West African countries that followed success is due chiefly to the Baule's ability to different development strategies, such as recruit relatives as unpaid agricultural workGuinea with its priority on industrial projects, ers, and to the large supplemental incomes or Ghana with its complete reorganization of the Baule women earn from the sale of food the agricultural sector in the 1960s, have seen crops such as yams, cassava, plantains, okra, these moves result in economic disaster. tomatoes, and hot peppers. While many African countries have been The exact number of farm immigrants in rocked by political upheaval during the last the Ivory Coast is unknown, but reliable unoftwo decades, the Ivoirian government's con ficial reports suggest that more than a third sistent promotion of agriculture has taken of the country's entire population of 8 million place in an atmosphere of complete political is made up of foreigners, with at least half of stability. The country is dominated by Presi them living in rural areas. For the Divo addent Félix Houphouet-Boigny, the country's ministrative district, more than 60 percent of sole leader since its independence from the inhabitants belong to nonlocal tribes, reFrance in 1960. ferred to as “strangers" by the minority inThis political stability has offered security digenous Dida. to the more than 60,000 Frenchmen and the es The Ivory Coast's boom in cocoa and coftimated 100,000 Lebanese in the Ivory Coast, fee output - the creation of rural wealth on a who together make up one of the largest non scale unparalleled in black Africa has not African populations in black-ruled Africa. been painless, however. The great social, eco nomic, and demographic shifts of the last 20 While many African states in recent years years have spawned their own set of have expelled their European, Middle East problems. ern, and Asian residents, the Ivory Coast has Not surprisingly, the original inhabitants actually increased its expatriate population of the forest region resent the economic sucsince independence. cess of the dynamic immigrant groups, and French expatriates perform thousands of they are frustrated by their own impotence to technical and managerial jobs in both the halt the massive wave of immigration they public and private sectors, including the large see engulfing their homeland. They freplantations and the half-dozen agricultural quently accuse the immigrants of illegal enresearch institutes. The Lebanese “play a croachment on their forest reserves, of failing dominant role in Ivoirian commerce, and, to show traditional respect for the indigenous acting as middlemen for large French export farmers who have sold them farm plots, and firms, they buy most of the country's cocoa of refusing to contribute to local projects such and coffee from African farmers. as schools and hospitals. The Ivory Coast's agricultural boom has “The foreigners who have settled in our benefited from ideal conditions of plentiful village have devoured so much of the land land and cheap labor. Farm pioneers in re that there is nothing left for my children," cent years have invaded the sparsely popu says Mr. Gnakpa. “I can only hope now that lated parts of the forest zone, especially the they do well enough in school to find good jobs southwestern region near the Liberian bor in town." der. Government controls over agricultural The immigrant farmers respond to these wages have held the salaries of hundreds of accusations by arguing that they are the key thousands of workers from poor neighboring to the Ivory Coast's economic miracle, and countries at a low level, thereby inflating that they are committed to local developfarm profits. ment. “Without us, the indigenous people The Ivoirian government estimates that would still be hunting wild animals for a live there are more than 400,000 cocoa and coffee ing,” Mr. Ilboudo says. “Besides, the governgrowers in the country, managing parcels of ment has told us that any unused land we put 10 to 12 acres on an average, with many of into production belongs to us.” these farmers raising both cocoa and coffee Another problem is that inequities among as a hedge against weather conditions, insect the Ivory Coast's export producers are widenpests, and plant diseases, which can ruin one ing. In the face of this trend, the Ivoirian govcrop, in a given year while the other crop ernment has tried to show that an egalitarian flourishes. mass of small farmers accounts for all of the Among the thousands of faru-owners who Ivory Coast's agricultural production. In a rehave shared the Ivoirian prosperity, the origi cent magazine article, a government spokesnal inhabitants of the forest zone are well re man stated that “there are no social classes presented. Few of them are landless, and the or bourgeoisie in the Ivory Coast. We most enterprising and affluent now live in ce Ivoirians are all sons of peasants." ment-brick “villas” furnished with gasoline driven electric generators and battery While it is true that smallholders still form powered television sets. the backbone of the agricultural sector, In addition, a large number of the export economists point to a process of increasing crop producers, and often the most dynamic concentration of farmland and incomes in the ones, are Ivoirian newcomers from the north hands of a few individuals. Most of these agriern and central savanna regions and immi cultural entrepreneurs are not self-made grants from neighboring countries such as peasant farmers, but come from the ranks of Upper Volta, Mali, and Guinea. top government officials, wealthy merchants, For the administrative district in which and urban-based professionals. Braboray 'is situated, for example, immi President Houphouet-Boigny is portrayed grants from the Baule tribe, with its roots in by the local press as the "first peasant of the the central Ivory Coast, have become the nation.” He is reported, however, to own the wealthiest cocoa farmers. Their economic largest pineapple plantation in the country and one of the biggest mechanized poultry
farms. Also, in 1978 he donated more than a thousand acres of his private cocoa and coffee plantation to the Ivoirian state. Many of the small village-born-and-bred farmers complain that when it comes to obtaining government loans and agricultural extension services, they are discriminated against in favor of state officials and other large absentee landowners. It is said in the Ivory Coast that these privileged groups "pass by the back corridor” to gain state aid, while ordinary people have to “line up at the front door." Despite this increasing rural inequality and the strains among the many indigenous and immigrant groups divided by cultural, linguistic, and religious differences - most of the indigenous people are Christians, for example, while the Malians and Upper Voltans are generally Muslims – the cocoa and coffee farmers' complaints have not crystallized into political protest or inter-ethnic violence. The main reason that protest has been muted is that Ivoirian cocoa and coffee producers' real incomes have generally risen over the past 20 years, an exceptionally long and consistent upward trend for an African nation. Farmers also have seen new public infrastructure, such as tarred roads, primary schools, maternity clinics, and central markets, which are financed largely by govern: ment earnings from cocoa and coffee exports, add to their improved standards of living. The principai ureal w ivoirian prosperity at present, and thus perhaps to political stability, is inflation, which has increased sharply in the last few years, running at between 15 and 30 percent annually. The Ivory Coast government boosted the officially mandated farm-gate prices for co coa and coffee by 20 percent in October in an attempt to keep pace with this galloping inflation.
MCHENRY'S STYLE: LOW- KEY INTENSITY IN HIGH- PROFILE JOB (Continued)
mission residence on the 120-110or penthouse of the Waldorf Astoria, a coldly tastetul apartment furnished by the State Department that Christina da scribes as "more a museum than a bome.” He joins his daughters for din ner, then retires to his bedroom to read more memos and more reports. Even while be sleeps, an all-news radio station plays in his room, a voice in the night reporting the world's events.
EVERY DAY JARS FRAGILE STABILITY FOR RHODESIANS (Continued)
more death in the war. You could say these deaths were screaming irrelevasicles as opposed to peace for seven million people." The colonel added that he and his tel. low officers retired each evening thankful that they had "kept the lid on." British diplomats in Salisbury employ the same phrase. Page 17
THE NEW YORK TIMES DAVE ANDERSON
Muhammad Ali's African Storm
N the years when Muhammad Ali was sitting offers for his multimil. lion dollar fights, the world heavyweight champion once boast. ed, "I don't deal with promoters, I deal with nations." But now that he is dealing with nations on an issue much more important than his boxing finances, he probably wishes he were dealing with promoters. President Carter probably wishes that, too. At the request of the President, the now retired champion is touring five African nations to present the United States position on the proposed boycott of the Moscow Olympics. But he seems to be doing more harm than good. When he arrived in Kenya yes terday, he accused the President of “sending me around the world to take the whipping" for the United States. At his first stop in Tanzania, the President there, Julius Nyerere, had refused to meet with him be cause he was a "boxer" rather than an official diplomatic envoy. At a news conference there the next day, hard questions by Tanzanian newsmen battered him in a political rope a dope. Diplomats in Kenya, which an nounced Sunday that it would boycott the Olympics, also doubted that its president, Daniel arap Moi, would meet with a “boxer." For all his world-wide fame, Ali is discovering that he does not transcend boxing, at least not as an official representative of the United States Government during an international crisis, He was described yesterday by the State Department as a "private citizen" but he is on tour in a Government jet. Ali's storm is not Ali's fault. It's the fault of those who sent him. Obviously he was selected for his image as a black and as a Muslim rather than for his knowledge of the situation. But to anyone familiar with him, his genius is as a boxer and a celebrity — not as a political histo rian, not as a diplomat, not as an envoy.
Someone should have warned Muhammad Ali not to I'm closer to you than I am to white Americans or white Russians." answer the bell when President Carter wanted to send After those remarks, United States him into the diplomatic ring as a roving ambassador to Embassy officials in Tanzania re drum up African support for President Carter's boyportedly tried to cut short Ali's news conference. But he spouted off again cott of the Moscow Olympics. It might have inspired in Kenya. hířn, in his inimitable fashion, to tell the Carter adminAli spoke yesterday of "going to istration to forget the whole exercise lest it wind up protect myself,” reverting to his in with egg splattered all over its face--and his. Tanzania's President Julius K. Nyerere sounded the should have sent a diplomat rather than a boxer on this when he was confronted with hard mission. Given the sensitivities that exist between questions, he did not have hard an- America and Africa, Mr. Nyerere has a point. swers. All his life, Ali has been the right It is customary to use non-professional diplomats on man in the right place, even in his special missions. But to Africans who remember how three-and-a-half year exile during his the United States used to send off black American mueventually victorious appeal to the Supreme Court of his draft-refusal sicians - the lovable, indomitable Louis Satchmo Armconviction. But in Africa now, he is strong was among the best-to the “Dark Continent" the wrong man in the wrong place. on special missions, dispatching a boxer on this occa The former champion's connection sion suggested that Americans still are not prepared to with the Olympic boycott developed take Africans seriously. when he suggested to his Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports Club, which he Mr. Ali found that black Africans resented being founded and supports, that none of its asked to stay away from Moscow when the United 32 boxers and track-and-field ath States refused to join an African-led boycott of the letes go to Moscow if chosen for the Olympic team. Ali's sentiment was 1976 Olympics in Montreal to protest New Zealand's prompted by the Soviet intervention sports ties with South Africa. "Maybe I'm being used to in Afghanistan, a Muslim nation. do something that ain't right," Mr. Ali said. “Ali is a Muslim," John Smith of But if his embarrassment was painful, the "little the Ali club said at the time, "and he heartburn" that Mr. Ali's remarks were causing State feels the Soviets are invading Alghanistan's rights." Department officials should be regarded as a lesson well earned. Before dispatching the champion to Afri. ca, they should have asked themselves whether they Two years ago, however, Ali praised the Soviet Union during a would send him on a similar mission to Europe. Moscow visit. At the time he was CHRISTIAN SCENCE MONITOR Friday, February 8, 1980 quoted as having said, "there's no big shots here, everybody's plain and 2 S. African citios to try simple, evan Mr. Brezhnev." He dropping a black curtew branded charges that there is no Capetown Two South African cities are to ex- periment with dropping the 72-hour he appeared to realize that perhaps curfew imposed on visiting blacks, he had been conned. one of the most hated apartheid laws. "You think,” he was quoted as hav. Piet Koornhof, minister of cooperation ing said, "they really could be just and development (black affairs), said showing me the good parts?” in Parliament this week that the curAll, of course, won an Olympic gold few, whereby blacks need a permit to stay more than 72 hours in an urban vate protest, threw it into the Ohio River shortly after returning to his area where they do not live, would the dropped in Pretoria and Bloemfontein as an experiment. The curtom is an in- tegral part of so-called in the control the city,” Cassius Clay, as he was laws, which restrict the movements of blacks. After leaving the restaurant, they For all his gendus as e boxer and as a celebrity, Muhammad Ali is not leader that Clay fought off. Moments equipped to handle a diplomatic mis later, he heaved his modal into the sion during an international crists. river. As even he explained when be flunked the military-service aptitude test about 15 years ago, "I only say who now favors an Olympic boycott. I'm the greatest, not the smartest."
Ali is scheduled to go on to Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal in what he now calls a "fact-finding mission" of those black African nations before filing his White House report. But the United States Embassy officials in those nations surely have been alerted to All's response when the Tanzanian newsmen reminded him that the Soviet Union provides aid to some African nations. "To me, Russia's a bad country," Ali was quoted as having replied, "but I don't know what Russia did for you. You tell me that the Russians are more your friends than the Americans. We're all brothers and Page 18
Excerpts from Sudanlegislatures Reserved
ISRAEL AND BLACK AFRICA: THE WASHINGTON POST February 6, 1988 NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 5, 1980 THE FORGOTTEN CONNECTION Dissolved (CONTINUED) And New Elections Are Ordered cally--for underground special KHARTOUM, the Sudan, Feb. 4 (UPI) training and returned to apply - President Gaafar al-Nimeiry dissolved the lessons learned in their secret Parliament and the Parliament of Southwork at home. The Afro-Asian In ern Sudan today and ordered new elec By John M. Goshko stitute in Tel Aviv played host to tions for both houses within 60 days. The State Department made public leaders of national liberation and The move came after the Sudanese Sa trade union movements who were yesterday a worldwide survey of hu- cialist Union, the only legal political man rights that, in addition to predict. either in exile or in the active un party, met for seven days and recom ably harsh attacks on abuses in the mended the country be reorganized into derground in their own countries. Soviet Union and other communist five autonomous regions in addition to the Among them were more than countries, also criticized such old or present southern region. twenty-five from the liberation potentially new U.S. allies 'as Paki Under the proposal, Khartoum would and labor movements of Angola, stan, Argentina, Morocco and Israel. remain the capital and the headquarters Mozambique, the Cape Verde Is For the first time, the annual report of the central Government. lands, Portuguese Guinea, South Africa and Namibia. During the to Congress is not restricted to coun- WASHINGTON POST January 17, 1980 tries receiving U.S. aid. Instead, under same period the Israeli Foreign new rules mandated by Congress, the Sudan Recalls Envoy to U.N. Ministry arranged for brief and 854 page survey covers all of the intensive training programs for world's 154 independent nations. medical orderlies and nurses KHARTOUM, Jan. 16 Sudan today That has focused special attention from some of these same coun recalled its ambassador at the United on the report as a potential indicator tries. Scores of Black revolution Nations for failing to attend Monday's of how the Carter administration's aries who fought for independ General Assembly vote on a resolution controversial championing of human calling for the withdrawal of foreign ence in Mozmabique and Angola rights may be affected by the twin troops from Afghanistan, the Sudan received first-aid training Isra crises in Iran and Afghanistan and News Agency reported. Sudan was el. the administration's top-priority effort condemned the Soviet military inter to rally resistance to Soviet moves in vention in Afghanistan and has called There are numerous other exthe Persian Gulf region. for the withdrawal of the Sovet troops. amples of joint programs carried Some rights advocates have out by Israel and Black African NEW YORK TIMES, pressed concern that, in the atmosstates. Sadly, most officially endphere of newly heightened East-West FEBRUARY 4, 1980 ed in 1973, when diplomatic rela Fensions, the administration might be tions with Israel were broken. tempted to use its human rights pol Soweto Pupils Plan Boycott One may well question whether tcy as a propaganda vehicle for attack- To Protest White Teachers these African countries have ing the Soviets or to soft-pedal U.S. profited from their bow to Arab pressures repressive regimes JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 3(Reuters)blackmail. The promises of finan whose support is being solicited by Students in Johannesburg's black suburb cial assistance have remained Washington. of Soweto plan to boycott classes after largely that--just promises. The These factors are known to have tomorrow in protest against the presence high prices asked for OPEC oil caused some clashes between factions of white teachers. must still be paid by Black Afriin the State Department, particularly A meeting of about 1,500 students in a ca as well. in regard to reports on such countries Soweto Church Hall yesterday unanias Argentina, Israel and Pakistan. mously agreed to continue going to school But, while the final products are but to refuse to enter classrooms until all In contrast there remains the known to reflect some compromises, "gun-toting soldiers disappear from our memory of twenty years of un schools". the country-by-country picture ap a reference to the small munt derstanding and common cause. ber of white teachers in the sprawling pears in general accord with the asPerhaps it may yet come to char townships that make up Soweto. sessments of private individuals and acterize future relationships as organizations concerned with human SENATOR TSONGAS well. Still, there is reason for rights conditions. ON SOUTHERN AFRICA pride. In the words of Moshe Dec Sub-Sahara Alrica: 1979 overthrows ter, a researcher and author on (CONTINUED) this subject: of brutal dictatorships in Uganda, the ation in that region, the report found. “The record of Israal's cooper It added, though, that abuses still con. including Angola ation with Black Africa speaks tinue in many countries and that Tsongas: Oh, yes. The non-recognition of for itself. It is the record of a no blacks and coloreds are still severely Angola is just as insane as non-recognition of ble enterprise a Zionist enter repressed by the white minority in China, lo, these many years. Now that we are prise-an adventure of the spirit, South Africa. an exalted dream translated into sidling up to China as an ally against the concrete reality. It is an expres THE NEW YORK TIMES. Soviets, the bankruptcy of our policy is all the sion of the Jewish people's histor FEBRUARY 6, 1980, more arguable. ic commitment to social justice." (Moreover] I do believe many of the front. ETHIOPIA line states are reassessing their commitment, At least 100 summary executions for not so much in public statements as in private, Rabbi Andrew Bakeri of political reasons are believed to have towards socialism-at least as practiced in taken place in 1979, much lower than in the American Jewish Commit 1978. No access is permitted to prison some countries—as a viable economic system. tee, prepared this article for ers by representatives of international My own view is that there has to be some kind publication in the Chicago organizations. Arbitary arrests accur of private incentive solution, and given the frequently, but are less common and long-term economic problems, I think forces Daily Defender. This is the less serious in their consequences than are at work in this direction that are very second of a number of arti in the last few years. Arrests for politi- favorable to the United States. My deep regret cal reasons by the Government's se cles that will explore the curity apparatus still continue, and is that we don't seem to recognize this, that we complexities of the Middle may result in lengthy imprisonment or always seem to react to problems rather than East. execution. anticipate them Page 19
THE NEW YORKER OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS FEBRUARY 11, 1980 TRANSITION - Roger WILKINS ARS known only from news- were over. These young men a baby was sleeping on a straw mat on paper accounts seem quite un the concrete floor of the central room. real, especially guerrilla wars said to be so full of anger and racial of the kind that went on for seven hatred that in many cases their par The family got by on vegetables ents had lost emotional contact with grown from seeds that the Red Cross years—until the ceasefire that took effect in December-in what is now them. The problem was evident in the provided, on trinkets that one of the men made and took to Salisbury to sell, called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. The casu broad lobby of Meikles Hotel, a luxu- rious place in downtown Salisbury, and on the salary of one of the womalty figures never seemed enormous; they just trickled in. And even the where, late on any afternoon before the en, who had been lucky enough to get atrocity stories about the destruction of ceasefire, clusters of sturdy young men a job as a domestic in the city. The woman who talked of all this was whole villages or the massacre of mis could be found drinking with women sionaries did not really bring the war friends. One afternoon, a man wear pleasant, open, and friendly. With no trace of bitterness, she said, “I won't home. But proximity breeds reality. To ing a brown T-shirt, mottled fatigue go back home until I know the war is a visitor arriving in Salisbury on pants tight across his hips, and combat over.” South African Airways flight from boots was drinking beer and talking One night, a group of white ZimJohannesburg three weeks before the with some people. Suddenly he lashed babwe-Rhodesians gathered to sing out and knocked a drink from the ceasefire, signs of the war were evi and hear Rhodesian folk songs. A hand of a dent. Three-quarters of the passengers woman standing nearby. “Damn them!” he cried. “I want to beautiful young matron named Fiona were carrying bags from the duty-free kill them all. And you can't tell me I played a guitar and raised a thin and shop at Jan Smuts Airport. Because shouldn't." Jovely voice in a ballad that asked why of trade sanctions that were imposed a man never brought flowers anymore. by the United Nations in 1966 and At Seke, a Red Cross camp for Suddenly a rough male voice cut across 1968—the sanctions were lifted just black refugees about twenty-five miles her lyrics and answered the question: before the ceasefire took effect- from the center of Salisbury, a black “Because of the sanctions.” These Scotch was hard to come by inside the woman spoke, through an interpreter, harsh words came from a young man travellers country, SO about her life. She had come to the were taking whose face had been brutally disfigured whiskey home. Another sign of the camp from the eastern part of the and whose eyesight had been burned war was the amount of time it took to country some months ago, she said, be away by flames in battle. get into the country. All male citizens cause government security forces had On another day, at a gathering of of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia between the killed her husband, suspecting that he black political figures in a Salisbury was a Patriotic Front guerrilla. Her ages of eighteen and fifty had to pro suburb, a man who is a high official in duce military-registration forms at air brother had been killed the Ministry of Agriculture said, almost port immigration desks, and the process soon afterward by as an aside to the point he was making, was slow. Only after a visitor was ex guerrillas, who that he couldn't go back to his tribal posed to the minds of the people and pected that he was a homeland anymore, for guerrillas had to the broken bodies of some of the supporter of the Prime killed three members of his family bemen, however, did it become clear Minister, Bishop Abel cause of him. “I am regarded as a puphow much the war had bled the coun Muzorewa, who pre pet of a white-controlled government," try and wearied its people. Driving sided for six months he remarked. “So the guerrillas kill along a road outside Salisbury, a white over a coalition govern meinbers of my family or extort money school administrator talked wistfully ment that was voted or food from them. When I was home, about her brother, who is now in his last April in I was on good terms with the guerrilearly twenties. “Ever since he was an election that exclud las, and the government security forces eighteen, he has been in the Army, ed the Patriotic Front sent me away. Then I got this job, and with ten weeks on duty and ten days and its leaders—Joshua the sadness began for my family.” off,” the woman said. “That has kept Nkomo and Robert him from beginning a career or finish Mugabe. The woman IMBABWE-RHODESIA is small ir.g college. It has also ruined his mar now lived in a three country. There are about seven riage and made him a drunk. He was room wooden house no million black Africans, two hundred a clever youngster, and attractive. But bigger than the living and twenty-five thousand whites (there by the time he was nineteen he'd had room of a small apart were two hundred and sixty thousand twenty-six parachute drops into Mo ment. There was before the war), and a smattering of the plumbing-just zambique to attack guerrilla bases Asians-Indians, mostly--and "colthere. Now he looks walls, the roof, and a old.” very oreds,” or people of mixed blood. White people spoke often about the floor. Fourteen people “We are so small here, and we all effects that the war had had on their lived there, the woman have family tragedies from this war, young men. Soldiers came home for said, all of them re and we know about all of our friends' lated and all of them their ten-day leaves full of violence, tragedies, too," an English academic people said, and they drank continual refugees. Three adults who has lived in the country for five ly, and talked about their hatred for slept in each of the side years told me. the blacks they had been fighting, rooms, and eight chil “No matter where your sympathies about the death they had seen, and dren slept in the slight lie, you are just dreadfully tired and about the damage they intended to ly larger central room. sick of this war,” said a white woman As the woman talked, Continued on page 6 inflict when their ten days at home Page 20
TRANSITION (Continued) pects are poor. If they prefer one of the black candidates, as some clearly do, they will have no way to express their choice. The black voters, by contrast. have a rich selection of candidates to choose among. The principal contenders are Sithole, Nkomo, Mugabe, and Bishop Muzorewa, the former Prime Minister, whose government relinquished office under the terms of the Lancaster House agreement in order for the British government to return briefly to power to preside over orderly transformation of ZimbabweRhodesia into an internationally recognized state. One of the major factors at work for Lord Soames is the weariness with the war that is felt on all sides, including the African states of Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, Tanzania, and Botswana, which have been supporting the struggle. According to both independent sources and government officials, Zimbabwe-Rhodesian security forces have made Zambia and Mozambique pay a fearful price for the support they have given the guerrillas. Now that the ceasefire is in effect, most observers believe that those countries will be reluctant to continue to take such punishment. Thus, there is general agreement that fears of a protracted continuation of the war probably unfounded. For the most part, blacks and whites differ profoundly in their ideas not only about the desires and the needs of the other group but also about which of the black leaders is best suited to erect an umbrella they can all live under.
dred days a year over the last seven years out in the bush with the Army, and he had sometimes come close to death. “I almost bought it last time,” he said on a night before he was to take his rifle from his bedroom to go meet his unit at five in the morning for yet another foray into the bush, looking for guerrillas to kill. The economist told me he was convinced that if Mugabe were to come to power in Salisbury he would run Zimbabwe the way Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had run Cambodia. "Mugabe believes that the cities are running sores of capitalism,'” he said, recalling a luncheon conversation he had with the political leader more than five years ago, just after Mugabe was released from ten years in political detention, and just before he left the country to assume command of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army. “He thinks that capitalism has ravaged this country, and he wants to build a new society and doesn't care how much destruction, how much time, and how much death it will take to do it. He'll drive the people out of the cities, because he thinks of the cities as the connection with Western capitalism. And he'll kill a lot of blacks who he thinks have become too fat and lazy.” When the question of Mugabe's presued blood lust was put to a black professor at the University of Rhodesia, in Salisbury, the man laughed. "Did you see that white woman who was leaving as you cam ime in?” he asked. “She is a colleague and a friend, but she was in here relaving her husband's anxieties about Mugabe. The white view of Mugabe and the Patriotic Front is absolute nonsense. IVhites have never had any chance at all to hear anything about Robert Mugabe except from Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front or the radio. They're ignorant of him. His program is very, very moderate. Most of his intellectual followers here feel that it's dismaily inadequate. He's a little to the left of the Swedish Social Democrats. He's very much like Cler. Attlee" -- Britpostwar Labour Prime Minister--“except that he's a practicing Çatholic who goes to church every Sunday. Do you expect such a fellow to come in here and commit wholesale murder?” 'HE polar differences in how Mugabe is thought of can serve as a metaphor for what the war has been about. Many white Rhodesians, even those who resisted lan Smith's twelveyear effort to preserve a white Rhodesia, have a limited understanding of black «spirations and black suffering.
And blacks, for their part, having been oppressed, jailed, tricked, and forced to war to win full rights in their own country, are slow to trust whites or to moderate their contempt for the constrictions that racism has imposed on the vision of so many of their fellowcountrymen. The war was fought, of course, to destroy the old system that rested on colonialism and racism. The country's farmers are said to regret the passing of the old ways more than most other whites in the country. I was taken to call on a farmer a few miles outside Salisbury by a white Rhodesian moderate, his wife, and his children, after a poolside brunch at their suburban home in Salisbury. As we were leaving for the farm, the man said to his son, “Get the gat.” The son asked, “Which one?” The father said, “The Belgian, and four magazines." The wife said to the husband, “I'II drive and you ride." The son came back with a Belgian automatic rifle and some ammunition. The wife drove the car, the husband rode in the front passenger seat with the gun resting on his leg, muzzle up, and the children and I sat in back. The precaution was necessary, the man said, because a guerrilla ambush could come at any time and at any place. The ride to the farm took no more than fifteen minutes. The farmer, Brian Black, is a supple-bodied, sandy-haired man of about forty, with lively blue eyes set in an almost round face. He had on a beige sweater over an open-necked sports shirt, long shorts that matched the sweater, and high wool socks that were a shade lighter than the shorts. His shoes were tan and thick-soled. He received us on a glass-enclosed porch overlooking a broad, rich green lawn that sloped down to a swimming pool and a tennis court. His grandfather came from Scotland in 1902, and in 1906 settled the farm-four thousand acres—over which Black now presides. He raises maize and soybeans and “runs cattle.” He has about seventy blacks working for him. The workers live in thatch-roofed huts on a hillside just a few hundred yards from two fine houses of concrete and glass, which Black and his father built for themselves. “You know, there are seven million blacks in this country, and they depend on whites,” Black said, over “Whether you like it or not, it's a fact. The guys on this farm don't want me to go. All these guys have problems, continued on page 8
"I AM really a black Rhodesian,” a a Salisbury economist said recently, living his clear blue eyes on a black American visitor. The visitor said nothing, because he had heard that the economist once made the same remark to a white Zimbabwe-Rhodesian woman and that it enraged her. “How can he make such mark?” the woman asked later. “Sure, be fought Ian Smith every step of the way, but he was never detained, he was never forced to live in Harare or sent back to a tribal trust land, and he hasn't watched his children go uneducated because there are no places for them. And he's always made a good living--and with his mind, not his back.” The economist has fouglit racism---he was instrumental in making it legal for blacks to play soccer in organized hagues-and he has also fought the guerrillas. He spent inore than a hun
TRANSITION (Continued) and I'm the only one who can solve some of them. We whites are truly indigenous Africans. We hold passports of no other country. I won't leave unless I have to—it'll not be because I want to. If law and order break down, I'll have to go. If I do have to go, I'll probably go to Australia, but it's hard to start over, even if you have connections. But I think a Patriotic Front victory in the election would accelerate my thoughts. There's no use worrying, however. The war hasn't come to this farm.” The war had come to other farms, though. During the conversation, the men mentioned a friend who had been killed by guerrillas not long ago as he drove his tractor over his fields. “He didn't have a gun on him,” Black said. “Damn fool and damn careless," the man who had brought me swered. The men commented on the fact that though the killing had taken place at nine-thirty in the morning, the victim's black field hands had continued seeding the fields until their work was done. “You know, the blacks in this country have been taken further in terms of education and minor skills than in any other country that has got independence," Black said. "They can lend the muscle on the assembly line, but somebody's got to press the button. It's really not non-ability. It's a kind of lack of confidence, or a cultural thing. It'll take generations to get it out, but eventually it'll happen. Black said that he wanted Bishop Muzorewa to win the election, because he had proved en he "a reasonable fellow.”
then called Southern Rhodesia had a law that, like a similar one in the Republic of South Africa, proscribed marriages between members of different races. Until January of 1979, the country also had a Land Tenure Act, which mandated that blacks live either in prescribed townships in urban areas or in the tribal trust lands reserved for them. Blacks were not permitted to buy houses. When black male workers were brought from the tribal lands to work in the cities, their wives and their children had to be left behind, and the workers were put up in male hostels that were unattractive and crowded; often, nine men signed to a single room. The men were regarded as temporary visitors to the urban centers. They were permitted no real ties to the cities where they worked. Harare, only a few miles from the center of Salisbury, is a township for blacks who work there. It and other black townships have been swollen over the last two years by floods of people trying to escape the war. Accurate counts of the number of refugees are impossible, officials of the International Red Cross say, but most estimates put the number of black refugees living in or near Salisbury at a million. Some of the refugees have comparatively good housing, built under the supervision of the Red Cross. Most do not. The Red Cross houses, like the one that the woman at Seke shared with thirteen relatives, are built of wood and have three small rooms, and most have concrete floors, which the tenants have laid themselves. The refugees who are not lucky enough to get Red Cross housing do not live nearly as well. They pay the government a dollar a month for a tiny plot of land, the use of the communal latrine, and a turn at the community water spigot. They put up shelters of four posts and a tin roof, with blue polyethylene for walls. These structures are held together by ropes running around the outside walls. In Harare, as in Soweto, a collection of townships outside Johannesburg, all civic functions-sewage disposal, garbage collection, and whatever police protection there is--have traditionally been financed by the government's taking a percentage of the profits of the local beer gardens. People in Soweto greatly resent this means of raising civic money--young people there rioted and razed the beer gardens in 1976, and still refuse to drink as a political protest-but the beer gardens in Harare are well used. It is said that the alcoholism rate in Harare is high, and that many men
aged by the fact that they are contributing to civic well-being-squander much of their weekly wage on drink before they turn their attention to the needs of their wives and children. Farther out from Salisbury is an area called Chitungwizawa group of black townships including Seke—which has a population of two hundred and fifty thousand. The government established Chitungwiza as a residential area for blacks adjacent to tribal trust lands outside Salisbury. Diana Seager, an attractive young white woman who lectures at the University of Rhodesia and who is doing her Ph.D. dissertation on low-income housing in the Salisbury area, said that in 1979 the government had allowed the area to establish an urban council with limited rights of self-government, but that only about ten per cent of the people there bothered to vote for members of the council. Each of the houses that the government provides there has a living room, a kitchen, and a bath, and stands on a small plot of land. Some of the people have developed little lawns and gardens where they grow both flowers and vegetables. The rent for one of these houses is about twelve dollars a month, and it is said that the people in the community have to spend a quarter of their income for bus transportation to and from their workplaces in Salisbury. In Chitungwiza, lights on high poles are kept on all night. Although a white man showing a visitor through the area I thought that the lights gave the place the aura of a concentration camp, one resident said she liked them. “The lights make us safer from the bands of robbers who roam here at night,” she remarked. The woman also said that she thought the creation of Chitungwiza was the government's way o establishing a new, urban tribal trus land, to which most urban blacks would be confined. She noted that though blacks have theoretically had the option of living anywhere since the repeal of the Land Tenure Act, only tiny fraction of the black population has had the money to take advantage of the opportunity. “This place will soon be another slum,” the woman said. “And the government doesn't really care.” The blacks now living in Chitungwiza were attracted to Salisbury by its economic activity, but some of them could find no housing, so over a period of three years they built a shanty town on vacant land. The government then established Chiramhahuyo, a squatter camp within Chitungwiza, to accommodate the urban black “overspill.” It Continued on page 9
"WHITE people are right in say“
ing that Muzorewa is the best candidate for them," George Kahari, a lecturer in African languages at the University of Rhodesia, said. Kahari is a large black man with an intensity and a powerful physical presence that seem to overwhelm his small university office. “The real reason is that Muzorewa is obsessed by the white man's interests. Muzorewa can have black Africans killed and he won't give two hoots. Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo are the only freedom fighters. They are the only ones who have fought to see that black people's aspirations are fully realized. Their love for their people is unquestioned. They want to restore to black people the human dignity that has been stolen from UNTI NTIL the early sixties, what was
TRANSITION (Continued) is said that thirty thousand people who can't find other housing live there. They pay three dollars and fifty cents a month for a plot roughly twentyseven feet by thirty and erect their own shacks, often of sun-dried inud bricks, which are fine unless it rains before the bricks have fully dried. If it does, they dissolve. The three-fifty buys not only the right to use the plot for the month but also access to the community water tap and to communal toilet facilities. Women were clustered at the tap, washing their clothes and their children. They are fastidious, and they gathered at the tap as they would have at the riverbank in the tribal trust lands. If people default on their monthly payment, government bulldozers come quickly and level their shacks. There are no trees or grass in Chirambahuyo—only bare dirt and dust and children. Visitors walking through the camp attract children the way magnets attract metal filings. At one point, a visitor counted thirty-five children, all apparently under the age of six, trailing in the dust behind him. The children were curious and friendly. “This is the greatest problem this country has,” a white developmental economist said, sweeping an arm in the direction of the children. “It is not the war, it is not politics—it is the black birth rate.” It has been estimated that the black population of the country is growing at the rate of three and sixtenths per cent annually. “Family planning was introduced here about five years ago," the economist said. “But just three days later Ian Smith announced a drive to attract a million new white immigrants. That was the end of family planning. The blacks figured that, if nothing else, they could outbreed the whites. Now the country needs one new primary school a day just to keep pace with the population."
Sithole, a stocky, good-looking man, was dressed in a well-cut blue suit, a blue shirt of a lighter shade, and a dark-blue tie. He selected his words carefully and spoke earnestly. Sithole looks and sounds like a man who could be taken seriously as the Prime Minister of an independent nation, yet his candidacy is taken seriously by few people other than his devoted followers. At least ten observers said, “Nobody trusts him." Sithole's political problems illustrate why it is so difficult to predict the outcome of the election. All the players in the almost thirtyyear struggle for Zimbabwe liberation have been onstage for a considerable time, maneuvering to shed first British colonialism, then Ian Smith's version of independence. The road to the election that will create an independent Zimbabwe has been clogged with ghosts of the past, which all the candidates have to live with, explain away, or destroy. In an apparent effort to deal with some of his personal ghosts, Sithole talked about the reasons for his participation in the talks that led up to the internal settlement and for his participation in the election last year. That election, held after long negotiations between Smith's government and several black groups, resulted in a constitution that mandated a sharing of power between blacks and whites. “Aspects of that constitution were bad,” Sithole said. “The name Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, for example. I was opposed to that ‘Rhodesia' part. But diehard Rhodesian Front people wanted it badly, so we gave in. Our main effort was to commit them to a power structure that would weaken their power. We did that, and so now we have a weak black government. The task before us is to develop a strong black government.' 'UESSES about the future of Zim babwe-Rhodesia seem as tangible as smoke. A white man who called himself “an unreconstructed Ian Smith rebel” and bragged about blowing up bridges in Zambia told me that Mugabe and Nkomo were marked men and would be killed for the losses and the suffering their armies had caused. A black taxi-driver told me that he thought Muzorewa would win the ·lection, saying, “He is a churchman. He is a kind man. He is not cruel.” Nevertheless, the Patriotic Front enjoys great popularity in the country, as is evidenced by the reception accorded its liaison representatives when they returned to Salisbury from Zambia and Mozambique, in December, and the evon wilder receptions for its leaders
when they returned, several weeks later. Professor Gordon Chavunduka, the head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Rhodesia, explained that popularity this way: “They are true black nationalists and are more likely to take black aspirations into account and bring about the black society that people have been fighting for for years.” Professor Chavunduka said that many blacks had become disillusioned with Muzorewa because of his willingness to lead a government that seemed to be controlled by whites and to cater to white interests. “There is no question that the whites, including those in the Republic of South Africa, will do everything in their power to insure a Muzorewa victory,” Chavunduka said. “But if the election goes the other way, they will all have to live with it. The South Africans won't want to interfere, because of the international consequences. They'll be dealing with an internationally recognized country, and I don't think they'll want to increase their international isolation.” Professor Chavunduka expressed the belief, held by a number of Patriotic Front supporters, that the Patriotic Front would have won the election if it had remained united. Other Patriotic Front supporters thought that such unity had always been highly unlikely. “There was tremendous pressure on Mugabe not to run with Nkomo,” one black Salisbury intellectual said. “Mugabe is highly principled, and so are his supporters. Nkomo played some funny games with the Smith regime, he let Mugabe do most of the fighting, and he went to London and enjoyed the kind of goodies that people were supposed to be fighting against. The people don't like that so much.” Still, Nkomo is a formidable electoral force. Though he comes from a smaller tribal grouping than any of the other candidates, his claim to be father of the liberation struggle is legitimate, and some Africans think that he has earned the right to be the first black leader of a truly independent Zimbabwe. Moreover, his capacity for communicating with the masses is said to be great, and his control over his own organization has always been strong. Mugabe is considered by a majority of blacks to be the most intelligent of the candidates but is also viewed by many as an ideologue. He is feared by some blacks because of the ferocity of his army, and he seems to be genuinely hated by a large segment of the white community. As for Sithole, a university Continued on page 23
“THE "HE new government will have an enormous job of reconstruction to do,” Sithole said in an interview in his office, in downtown Salisbury, from which he directs his party's campaign for seats in the Zimbabwe Parliament. “Many homes were destroyed by the war. We need social reconstruction, too, because many rural people have coine to town as refugees. We have to resettle these people. Homes have been destroyed, and also schools, clinics, dispensaries, and hospitals. The basic problems we shall face are those of social and economic reconstruction."
LONDON – Many black-African countries are likely to restore diplomatic relations with Israel this year after the exchange of ambassadors between Israel and Egypt, which is scheduled to take place Feb. 26. The signs are unmistakable, although no one wants to be seen to make the first move. Such a dramatic reversal in black Africa's collective Middle East policy would end Israel's virtually complete diplomatic isolation in the third world; create a setback for South Africa, which is at present Israel's only major trading partner in Africa; and strengthen international approval of Egypt's Middle Eastern peace initiative. But, more important for the Africans, it would re-establish their independence in international affairs from their Arab neighbors to the north. More important for the world, it would give the Africans a significant measure of influence moderate the Arab-Israeli conflict. Most black-African governments support the Palestinian claim for nationhood while at the same time recognizing Israel's right to exist. Their quarrel with Israel stems from the brief Israeli occupation of African territory in Egypt, which has now been re solved. Until the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Israel maintained close ties with more than 30 black-African countries. They accepted Israel as a still-developing nation born out of violent struggle against British imperialism. Israels's development-aid programs were the envy of the world, for Israel had a great deal of valuable experience to share in spheres of urgent importance to Africans, among them agricultural science, construction, public health administration and fishing Black Africans had resisted intense pressure from the Arab north to take sides in the Middle East. ern conflict, but their impartiality crumbled during the 1973 war when Israel occupied a slice of African territory in Egypt. By the time that territory was returned, in March 1974, black Africa's new political loyalties appeared to be a permanent reality, sup ported by generous promises of economic assistance from the north to offset the sudden rise of world oil prices — the Arabs' "oil weapon” whose use has been esclating ever since. In theory, in exchange for the diplomatic isolation of Israel, black Africa was to enlist the support of the Arab north in unseating the white-minority Government of South Africa. But in practice, South Africa gained in the process by strengthening its ties with an increasingly friendless Israel while it went on trading with the Arabs as well as the rest of the world. The only losers were the Africans, who thus relinquished their sole source of "untied” develop ment assistance from a genuinely color-blind donor, and Israel, whose policy of Zionism became officially equated with apartheid at many world forums. Despite their promises, the wealthy Middle Eastern oil exporters failed to make economic concessions to black Africa that corresponded with the relentless increases in world fuel prices. This meant that black Africa's fragile economies were the first to be crippled by the soil weapon." Thomas Land writes from Geneva and London for overseas newspapers.
The separate peace between Egypt and Israel was therefore welcomed by many African policy makers as a graceful means of escape from what they had come to regard bitterly as a diplomatic trap. If Egypt, a fellow African country directly involved in the Middle Eastern conflict, can exchange ambassadors with Israel, surely they can too, they reason. Formal relations between states are neither es tablished nor broken lightly, and certainly no influential African country would wish to risk its “radical” reputation by restoring official contacts with Israel alone. Hence the cautious diplomatic feelers currently extended by many African capitals in search of coordinated action. The trend may well begin in East Africa which is obviously the most concerned with the success of the Middle Easter peace process and also the most affected by the fall of the Idi Amin regime in Uganda, which had been the most vocal African advocate of the Arab cause and then sweep the continent. In the meantime, black Africa's unofficial contacts with Israel are flourishing. Israeli development advisers are engaged in more than 20 African countries but this time in a private rather than public ca. pacity. Their Government, which is very sensitive about its image in Africa, publicly maintains that any initiative toward resumed diplomatic relations must come from those who broke them. But its diplo mats will tell anyone who cares to listen that the Is. raeli consulate in South Africa was upgraded to full embassy status only after black Africa's change of heart in 1973, implying that it could be downgraded. Black Africa's fresh thinking on the Middle East first came into the open when the majority of its heads of state, gathered at the recent Monrovia, Liberia, conference of the Organization of African Unity, refused to “punish" Egypt, despite Arab demands, for its separate peace with Israel. During the conference, The Sunday Express, the host country's only Sunday newspaper, called on African countries to resume relations with Israel without further delay. “With rapproachment now a political fact of life between Egypt and Israel," it argued, "member countries of the 0.A.U. no longer feel bound to mainta in a diplomatic break with a country which can offer so much in the transfer of technology to them." Several members of Parliament in Kenya are advocating an early resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel. Zaire and Israel recently announced the resumption of trade-union links, a development seen by both as a step leading toward full diplomatic relations. Black Africa is likely to follow its own economic interests, but may well achieve a great deal more besides. Given the political isolation of Egypt and Israel, and the military impotence of all the other par. ties directly involved in the Middle Eastern conflict, biack Africa now stands a chance of reversing its traditional relationship with the Arab north by extending an influence over events beyond the Sahara Desert and the Red Sea. It could use that influence to encourage a dialogue between the hostile forces and thereby broaden the peace process, perhaps promoting a just peace for all the peoples locked in the struggle.
Cubans Become 'Teachers' for Third World
but also to be producers," said a Cuban govern. ment official. “The first thing is ideology." The Isle of Youth, which was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage, in 1499, has been renamed 15 times. It has been a pirates' ref. uge, a prison compound and a last frontier. Fol. lowing Cuban independence from Spain, the United States excluded the Isle of Pines, as it was then called, from settlement under the Platt amendment. There was talk of annexation by the United States.
But in 1925, the Isle of Pines became part of Cuba, a move not calculated to please the 17,000 Americans who had settled on the island and owned tracts of land. Three years later, Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado opened the notorious “Presidio Modelo," a fearsome penal institution. Castro was among political prisoners who spent time there. He put in 18 months, following the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. On the island, there are elegant stands of palm trees. The scent of citrus is in the air. Students work a few hours each day, tending the grapefruit plantations.
The students come from eight countries and are attending 15 different schools scattered across the lush Isle of Youth off the south coast. The island used to be called the Isle of Pines and housed Cuba's most feared prison. European press reports have claimed that the youths were forced to come to Cuba. There have also been assertions that they are en. rolled in slave labor camps to help boost Cuba's stagnant economy. The kids say otherwise. Most of them come from poor families and seem happy, healthy, well cared for and strictly disciplined. And they say they now have an opportunity to learn what they would not have been able to learn at home. When they finish their Cuban training, they are ready to go back, in the words of a Namibian 16-yearold, “to consolidate the building of the homeland." During a recent interview by Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Henry A. Grunwald and Time-Life News Serv. ice Chief of Correspondents Richard Duncan, Castro insisted that the students are not being politically indoc trinated. “Each country is in charge of the political studies," Castro said. “For instance, there are 600 Nicaraguans, and about 100 of them go to mass on Sundays. We do not meddle in that. We don't go into polítics with them. We just deliver the other subjects: math, physics, chemistry. History is taught by national professors." The teen-agers come from Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Congo, Sao Tome, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Nicaragua. In addition to courses in math, chemistry, physics, and "universal history," they are getting a heavy dose of ideological training taught by teachers brought in from home. Most of the teachers of academic courses are Cuban. Of the eight nationalities involved, all but one is post-colonial. Namibia, or South-West Africa, is in the process of becoming independent. So the general thrust for Namibian students is not on revolution, but the building of a nation. "Foreign devils,” however, often come in for a tongue lashing. "The kids are healthy and they're learning in class and in the fields not to be merely consumers,
The walls of the virtually identical schools – breezy, modern four-story structures are decorated with portraits of Marx and Lenin. About 10 teachers in each school, one quarter of the instructing force, are natives of the countries from which the students come. The foreign teachers have a representante, or leader, who presides over most of the ideologicial training. The representante is the go-between with the Cubans and is also responsible for communicating with the government back home on the students' progress. Regimentation is strict. The only time the students are not wearing blue uniforms with red kerchiefs and berets, the standard garb of Cuba's young Joven Pioneros, is when they are in the fields or during their spare time. Students are roused at 6 a.m. Classes begin at 7:15 a.m., and each lasts 45 minutes. Some youths work only in the afternoon and some work in the mornings. Half of the students are boys and half girls. The curriculum varies somewhat with each nationality. The “revolutionary” part of the instruction centers on raising awareness of each country's colonial past, its place within the “non. aligned movement,” and its economic problems. As lunchtime approaches, the work groups march smartly into the courtyard of their school. They carry the flags of Cuba and their home coun. tries. A teacher dismisses them and they enter the mess hall. Their diet consists of rice, meat, bean soup, cake, bread and the inevitable grapefruit juice. In some mess halls, each table is decorated with plas. tic flowers. It is not all work and no play. Each of the schools has a soccer field and courts for basketball and volleyball. There are hairdressing salons for the girls. On Sundays the students are often bused to nearby beaches or go on sight-seeing tours to the island's museum, which is devoted to the Cuban struggle for independence. Page 21
Refugees Pour Into Somalia as Fighting Rages Inside Ethiopia
Rich-Poor Conference Winds Up in Up in Deadlock
THE WASHINGTON POST February 13, 1980 THE WASHINGTON POST February 11. 1980 been a contributing factor, fighting in the Ogaden, also appears to have in. creased gradually in the past six months and official sources said regular Somali forces have been used in the area in the last two months. The Somalis say that the Ethiopians are deliberately trying to empty the NEW DELHI-Plans for the industrialization of the Third World over the next two decades suffered a serious setback here this weekend, when a conSAUDI ARABIA frontation between the rich and pror nations ended in.deadlock after three weeks of negotiations. An Indian newspaper headline said: “Poor nations YEMEN Y SOUTH let down by the rich." Washington Post Staff Writer YEMEN But for the Western delegates, important matters SUDAN Sanaa Increased fighting between Somali Gulf of of principle were involved. In their view, the United ERITREA Aden Aden insurgents and Ethiopian forces, cou Nations Industrial Developinent Organization was DJIBOUTI beïrig turned into an anti-Western political forum pled with an autumn drought, has led ETHIOPIA and they were being asked to sign a lengthy denunto a drastic upsurge in the flow of ref ciation of “Zionism, racism and imperialism," ugees into Somalia from Ethiopia's Addis drafted in Havana. disputed Ogaden region, according to Ababa Ambassador John McDonald, leader of the U.S. U.S. sources and U.N. officials. delegation, said the West was presented with propoThese sources say the refugee popu SOMALIA sals that he called “unreal.” lation of Somalia has swollen to over The roots of the conflict lay in last December's half a million. The new arrivals have "Havana Declaration,” agreed to at a meeting of been streaming across the border at *Mogadishu Third World countries, and presenied here with the rate of up to 1,500 a day in recent KENYA only a few amendments for acceptance by the Westmonths, compared to 800 to 1,000 - a Indian Ocean fin nations as well. day in the first three quarters of last McDonald said: “The declaration attacked the West repeatedly, unfairly blaming us for all the year. By Dave Cook-The Washington Post evils of the world. It ignored the role of OPEC comAggravation of Somalia's refugte pletely, and the East Europeans were ignored comproblem comes as the United States is Ogaden of its ethnic Somali civilian pletely. We are the bad boys, and the group of 77 expressing renewed interest in the vo- population, a position also argued in a lunderdeveloped countries) are the good guys, dolatile Horn of Africa, especially So- speech Jan. 31 to the House by Rep. ing everything right. We just think this is the wrong malia and neighboring Kenya, in the Thomas E. Petri (R-Wis.), a former way of having an international conference coming search for military facilities to protect Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia. out with any agreement." Middle East oil lanes. “There is much impartial evidence The centerpiece of the Third World's industrialiThe Carter administration has de. that the flood of refugees has been zation plan was to set up, by the year 2,000, a global cided in principle to supply Somalia caused by the indiscriminate bombing ever, its distribution and the uses to which it would fund of $300 billion, administered by UNIDO. Howwith military equipment such as by the Ethiopian Air Force of inno- be put would be decided by the Third World alone. trucks, transport aircraft and radar. cent civilians, poisoning of water The offer reportedly is linked to the holes and strafing of the nomads' live they decide what to do with it. It was a bit unreal.”. “So we put up the cash,” McDonald Said, “and U.S. effort to obtain air and port facil- stock," he said. ities in that country. The House Africa Subcommittee is Washington has been reluctant to to hear testimony today on the Somali that, in addition to the nalf million provide Somalia with military aid refugee situation. refugees in the camps, another 700,ever since Somali forces invaded Ethi- U.S. officials say it is difficult to 000 are roaming the countryside, opia's Ogaden region in the summer gauge precisely the population base which put the real total at 1 2 million. of 1977 in support of ethnic Somali in- in southern and eastern Ethiopia Senior liaison officer Chris Thorne surgents, only to be repulsed by Cu- from which the refugees, mostly eth of the U. N. High Commissioner for ban and Ethiopian forces. That reluc- nic Somalis and Galla tribesmen, are Refugees' Washington office said that tance now appears to have been coming. tribesmen flocked into Somalia from eclipsed by the pressing need for mili- The most conservative estimates the Ogaden at an average rate of a tary facilities to project American run to about 2 million people, but thousand a day in 1979. In the last power into the Indian Ocean and Per- one official said “the number may quarter of the year, however, this rate sian Gulf area. actually be as high as 5 million.” surged to 1,500 a day To some extent, the Somali refugee Both U.N. and U.S. officials believe About 90 percent of the camp popuproblem has been overshadowed by the population of Somalia's refugee lations are children under the age of the geopolitical maneuvering, but the camps could rise as high as 800,000 15 and women, according to U.N. half million refugees clogging Soma- or a million by the end of this year figures. lia's 21 camps are visible reminders of if the refugees keep coming at the In October, the Somali government continuing conflict on the Horn of Af. current rates. appealed for $71 million in relief aid. rica. If the flood continues, one U.S. of. Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, a New York Their plight underscores the possi- ficial observed, "there could eventu. physician who visited the Somali bility of confrontation by proxy with ally be as many refugees as there are camps last fall, recently wrote that the Soviet Union, Ethiopia's chief citizens in Somalia.” Somalia's popu "infectious diseases----malaria, tuberlation is 3.4 million. arms supplier, if the United States es. culosis, hepatitis, dysentery, bronchitablishes military ties with Somalia. According to figures of the United tis-are rife and the potential for U. S. officials believe that a short. Nations High Commissioner for Refu truly decimating epidemics of cholera, age of rain in the Ogaden's brief Sep- gees, the refugee population in Soma for example, is frighteningly predicttember-October rainy season may lia passed the 500,000 mark in Janu able.” have limited forage for the nomads' ray. It is the largest refugee problem He added, “The death rate is astrolivestock, thus aggravating the refuin Africa, rivaled in size worldwide nomic. In one camp of 41,000 women gee flow as men stayed behind with only by the 500,000 to 600,000 Afghan and children, there had been 2,000 their herds and sent their families to refugees in Pakistan and the nearly deaths in the last two weeks, with 41 the camps. 400,000 Cambodians along the Thai pregnant women having died from Although the drought may have Cambodian frontier. dysentery during the week I visited The Somali government estimates the camp.” Page 22
THE NEW YORK TIMES TINDOUF, Algeria At my first session of the United Nations General Assembly as United States Ambassa. dor, in 1977, I responded to a request from Morocco's Foreign Minister to meet with a parliamentary delegation from the Western Sahara. Six distinguished desert leaders informed me that they were elected representatives and that they chose to be a part of Mo rocco. A few days ago, I again met two. of these gentlemen, but now they were representatives of Polisario's "Saha. ran Arab Democratic Republic," tell. ing me quite a different story. According to Abderrahman Leibek, the Moroccans picked him there was no election took him to New York and instructed him to state the preference of the people of Western Sahara for Moroccan citizenship. He fled to Madrid, then here to Tindouf to join the Polisario Front, which is fight. ing Morocco for independence for the Western Sahara, a Spanish colony until 1975 when it was turned over to Morocco and Mauritania. The latter withdrew last August and Morocco took over all the territory. Now thousands of refugees from the former Spanish Sahara live in the desert hills of southwestern Algeria in a model “mini-nation," hoping to return to their homeland. The view here is impressive. Well-organized rows of tents house thousands of refugees in villages. Each village has its elected government, schools, hospital and military defense system. Each school trains and feeds 1,000 children. A beau. tiful girl of 16 is headmistress of one school and supervises its entire opera. tion; older women cook a lunch of bread and lamb stew while young men and women hold classes in Arabic and in Spanish. The teachers conduct classes all day and undergo training in the evening. A “national" school of 2,000 students gives additional training for those who are expected to study abroad. THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
A visitor is immediately aware of order and cleanliness maintained in very difficult conditions. Walls are painted white, courtyards swept and dampened like a tennis court to keep down the dust that often contaminates the lungs of young desert children. All seems perfect - except for a sign picturing me with an American flag in one hand and an airplane in the other. A question, in neat Arabic script, asks: "Why do you give bombs to the Moroccans to kill us?" Children have heard of the sale of rocket-launching helicopters and F-5 jets to Morocco and can't understand why Americans can't see them as a devout Moslem people victimized by Moroccan aggression just as we see the Afghans victimized by the Soviet Union. Young men clad in blue desert robes took me to what looked like an exposi. tion of armaments. I was told: “These are just a few of the weapons we have captured from the Moroccans. They get weapons from France, Belgium, Germany, Egypt, and Russia also, but they give them up because their cause is not just." I saw several hundred 50 mm. machine guns, guided-missile launchers, stacks and stacks of ammunition labeled with the names of American manufacturers, 105-mm. howitzers from the Rock Island Ar. senal in Illinois. There were Soviet and Belgian tanks - how did they capture a tank without damaging it? - and Mercedes trucks, Land-Rovers, jeeps.
FEBRUARY 13, 1980 "These are just a few. Most of the weapons our men are fighting with are captured in the field," my guide said. "When you come back, we may be able to show you an old V-10 helicopter," he said laughing Propaganda? Yes. But then across the next range of hills are hundreds of war prisoners squatting on the ground. Three are F-5 pilots, one of whom, trained at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, speaks fluent English. He complains that he has not heard from his wife but looks healthy and says that though the life is tough and boring the food is good and the treatment decent. How do we get on the opposite side of people who are fighting for the free. dom and self-determination that we preach? King Hassan II of Morocco is a true friend of the United States. He helped arrange the visit of Anwar el-Sadat to Jerusalem. He sent troops to bail out Mobotu Sese Seku in Zaïre, and usually supports American positions. He is viewed even by the Polisario and Al. geria, which arms and finances the Front, as the key to stability in the re gion. Algeria claims that any succes. sor to Hassan, left or right, is likely to be even more adventurous. The Poli. sario knows that they cannot defend their country against his army but they have proved that the army is de fenseless against their attacks. Il Hassan is our friend, why do we aid in constructing a scattold of weap onry upon which he can only hang him. self? Partly it's the emotional atmosphere stemming from Iran. But with reason, a bit of common sense and the wise leadership of our own democratic tradition, Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario can together bring stability to North Africa and share in prosperous development. Andrew Young, the United States' for. mer chief representative at the United Nations, isa guest columnist. February 13, 1980
S. Africa: major changes would be 'unrealistic'
By Humphrey Tyler courageously confronted his own regional Special to The Christian Science Monitor political congresses with liberal ultima Cape Town tums during the parliamentary recess, The performance of the South African was cautious. He emphasized that he was government in the early days of the new not turning into a political liberal the session of Parliament may have pleased worst sort of pariah in National Party its more right-wing supporters, but it eyes. seems to have confused other political Moderate black leaders, who had engroups in the country. dorsed what was regarded as Mr. Botha's It certainly has greatly disappointed “new initiative” only weeks ago, accused those who had hoped this Parliament him of “running away from the challenges would provide some sweeping changes in of our times.” South Africa's controversial racial policy. Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, the chief minis Instead of repeating recent promises of ter of the Zulu tribe, said, “We most cerpolitical changes, Cabinet ministers so far tainly expected change, and I mean fundahave gone out of their way to reassure mental change. If Mr. Botha's version of their right-wing followers that they did not change is to be within the straightjacket of intend to stray from the traditional posi- apartheid, then he has strengthened the tions of the ruling National Party. hands of those who say violence is the only They claimed the opposition Progres- way to bring about change.” sive Federal Party and the "English Apartheid is the National Party governpress” had blown up popular expectations ment's system of enforced racial, ecoof change “unrealistically." nomic, and political segregation. Even Prime Minister P. W. Botha, who The elected leader of the Colored people
(people of mixed race), the Rev. Allan Hendrickse, said he found Mr. Botha's “retreat from a course of change" to be a "very sad disappointment.” In Soweto Dr. Nthato Motlana, a powerful black opponent of the government, said Mr. Botha's comments in Parliament had confirmed his “worst suspicions." Political columnists of the Afrikaanslanguage newspapers, which support the National Party, insist that the government “is not backtracking” and that “orderly and meaningful changes and the removal of hurtful racial discrimination” would still be instituted “within the policies of the National Party.” In contrast to the government, the new leader of the official opposition in Parliament, Dr. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, made a good impression in Parliament. He called for a realignment of white South Africans, drawing a line between those who are prepared to share political power with all races, and those who are not.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
South Africa's latest homeland: a new approach
A controversial international commission has just advised South Africans not to proceed with the independence of its remaining black homelands. It also offers an imaginative blueprint for the creation of a multiracial, self-governing zone within South Africa. Both recommendations are sure to excite black South Africans and dismay the government. The commission, composed of a former British ambassador to South Africa, two American academics, and four South Africans (including two prominent Afrikaners and an African lecturer), was appointed a year ago by the government of the Ciskei, a homeland of 700,000 Africans on the southeast coast of South Africa Transkei, Bophuthatswana, and Venda, three of the homelands carved out of the body of South Africa despite great African hostility, declared their independence in 1976, 1978, and 1979. None has been recognized internationally. Each has been shunned in turn by the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, and the leading nations of the West. Before taking a similar step the Ciskei asked for advice and appointed the commission. After taking evidence in South Africa and sponsoring a detailed public opinion poll among Africans, the commission learned that urban Africans (especially Ciskeians) were overwhelmingly opposed to further grants of independence to places like the Ciskei. Even rural Africans (including those resident in the Ciskei) were opposed. The commission was heavily influenced by the results of its poll and by its deliberate weighing of arguments in favor of and against independence for the Ciskei. Finally, in its report (released Monday, Feb. 11, in South Africa) it argued against independence because “in terms of size and economic viability” the Ciskei would be badly endowed; because an independent Ciskei would not be recognized; because of
can citizenship as a result of any independence; if the Ciskei. now too small and too impoverished, were given a handsome land settlement, including important white areas; if Ciskeians were still permitted to seek work in South Africa; and if South Africa gave the Ciskei equitable financial terms. In other words, independence in the style of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, and Venda is an unattractive option for Ciskei and the other six remaining dependent homelands of South Africa. The body of the commission's 130-page report, especially the central political and economic chapters, elaborates that point at considerable length. It is only at the end of its report that the commission describes its vision of a possible alternative to independence. The commission proposes the joining of the Ciskei, a nearby white farming area of roughly equal size, and the adjacent white port city of East London (pop. 75,000) into a multiracial condominium, governed by blacks and whites, and supported economically by an industrial processing zone (like Singapore) and a free port. What is envisaged is a self-governing area about the size of Connecticut, freed from South Africa's restrictive racial legislation but remaining a part of the Republic for purposes of foreign affairs, defense, and the provision of national services like railways. The commission calls this new entity a condominium, and provides only a sketchy blueprint for its implementation. But it clearly hopes that South Africans will want to create such a black-white run area as an experimental harbinger in microcosm of a future South Africa. The members of the commission want the condominium proposal to be discussed. In today's changing and still tense South Africa it is a serious and unique contribution to the recently elevated debate over urgent political change.
Robert I. Rotberg, professor of political science and history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a member of the Ciskei Commission. Washington Post February 11, 1980
By Joan Forbes, staff cartographer
the attitude survey data; and because independence would cut off a place like the Ciskei from the political and economic benefits which would in the future accrue to the people of South Africa. The last, an argument in equity, was especially persuasive. The commission recognized that the black government of the Ciskei might nevertheless decide in favor of independence. It might also be prodded by South Africa. If Ciskei ever decided to opt out of South Africa, the commission's report warned it to do so only if the majority of its people voted in favor of such a separation (no homeland has yet polled its people); if blacks were not forced to give up their South Afri
Ali at Andrews Air Force Base: "It worked a little better than we thought."
Labor Relations Turn Volatile In South Africa
By Caryle Murphy Washington Post Foreign Service JOHANNESBURG-After more than two months of labor unrest at one of its four motor car assembly plants, Ford Motor Ca of South Africa has agreed to reinstate several bedre striking black employes it had fired, giving the workers a moral as well as a political victory. The decision was a reer of a statement from Ford's management in Late November that Ford would rehire the strikers only as new employes and thus would hold a veo ga their readmittance to the plant as well as free them to lose accumulated benefits. In addition, the strites forced Ford to close for its extended Christmas holidays with 2,000 fewer Cortinas ready for the showroom than planned, according to Ford's industrial relations director, Fred Ferreira. The troubles of the subsidiary of the giant U.S. car firm were part of a mased a wildcat strikes involving some 1,500 workers that hit two other large firms in the dingy, industrial torn of Port Elizabeth, giving South Africa its wordt industrial unrest since 1973. These small-scale bat widespread work stoppafges around the rest of the country point to a growing militancy of black workers whose grievances include low wages, summary disarissals for complaining, lack of bonuses and job advancement, and "rudeness" from white supervisors This militancy comes at a time when the South African government has bed a new deal for black workers aimed at eliminating discriminatory employment practices, nacelerating the training of blacks to fm skilled positions and giving blacks an increased sayin labor-mingement negotiations through recognized black unions. Multipacial unions still are illegal except by aprus permission of the labor minister. Named for its principal architect, Nid, Wiebahn, the new labor dispensation is a fundamental aspect of Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha's reforbnist program which is meant to stimatate economic growih and defuse black discontent by opening up opportinitieis in the social and economie spheres Many obsepres see the Port Elizabeth laborwrest as a prepjew of a volatile industrial scene in South Africa in the 1980s. as the government's new ubor policies threaten the job sarity of whites and heighten the job expectations of blacks who are pre vented from voicing normal political expression in their communities by police activity. Police arrested about 20 of the striking workers, one of whora is a leading political netinin in Port Elizabeth. And two weaks mom, a muaber d other Port Elizabette activists were arrested after refusing to call off a demonstration protesting the forced eviction of residents from a long established black townships. Such actions are likely to calcet out any goodwill the government was gaining by it reformist labor program,which many politically aware blacks in any case regard as a step by the government to stimulate productivity and economic growth rather than move towarda more just dispensation in the workplace. Blacks now.constitute 77 percent of the pew an
nual entrants into South Africa's rapidly industrializing labor market and will increase to 83 percent by the turn on the century, according to official figures. With only 10,000 new white workers entering the labor force each year and 26,000 skilled positions to be filled, blacks must close the gap, according to Afrikaner economist J.L Sadie of Stellenbosch University. The Ford unrest is the focus of special interest from industry and labor leaders because the American-owned company, which has been in South Africa more than 50 years, generally is regarded as having "progressive” employement practices at its four plants. It put itself a cut above most other companies in South Africa by recognizing the black United Automobile and Rubber Workers' Union (UAW) two years ago when government policy was still to discourage black unions. The UAW now represents about 65 percent of Ford's 1,100 black workers, Ferreira said. Even UAW organizer George Manase calls Ford a "first class, good company.” He says the trouble at Ford was caused by “some illiterates who don't wamt to change their principles. They still want to follow separate development.” Manase made it clear he was talking about Ford's 700 white employes. The troubles were triggered when Thozamile botha, a 31-year-old trainee engineer at Ford who also leads the black consciousness-oriented Port Elizabeth black civic association, resigned Oct. 30 claiming he was giving an ultimatum to cease his outside political activities or resign. Hundreds of workers staged a walkout in support of Botha, and his return was negotiated with the company,which denied the ultimatum. The workers took up their toils again. But two weeks later, the conservative white union at Ford threatened to strike over a series of grievances. Using a strategy which had worked in the past, they accused management of giving in to unresonable black demands and complained about blacks' misusing the toilets, cafeteria and lockers that were desgregated early this year. They charged Ford's program of racial integration caused racial friction. Unlike past incidents, the blacks reacted angrily to these accusations, however, threatening another walkout if the white union didn't make a public apology. Ford attempted to negotiate directly with the blacks through mass open-air meetings. But the impasse couldn't be resolved when whites refused to apologize and blacks added other complaints such as the absence of any black security guards to check identification cards and the rudeness of white supervisors. Ford finally outlawed any more mass meetings and said anyone who walked off the job would be considered fired and would have to reapply as a new employe. Next day, 700 blacks, including Botha, walked out. Two days later, 625 black workers of General Tire and Rubber, now a wholly South Africanowned company, went out on strike with their own grievances, clearly inspired by events at Ford. In the face of a continued stayaway by its employes, Ford reversed its decision Jan. 7 and agreed to reinstate the striking workers. THE WASHINGTON POST February 12, 1980 Ugandan Press Ban Lifted KAMPALA, Uganda, Feb. 11 (AP)-
FEBRUARY 15, 1980 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Panel Tells South African Region British worry over To Reject an Independent Status Rhodesia's election
An unusual international commission, whose membership included white South Africans, has recommended that the area designated by South Africa as the tribal homeland of Ciskei decline to become an independent nation and work instead to ward a new status as a multiracial entity within South Africa. The commission's report was presented on Tuesday to the government in Ciskei, an area that the South Africans describe as a dependent black homeland, even though two-thirds of those called. Ciskeians by the South African Goverment live outside the region. The Ciskei government commissioned the yearlong study of availabļe options “for the best future interests of the Ciskei and Ciskeians." Ciskei is the name given certain adjoining areas on the southwest coast of South Africa which, if consolidated, would comprise about 3,200 square miles. Ciskeians, as defined by South Africa, comprise about 660,000 black inhabitants of the homeland area and about 1.4 million other black South Africans who live out. side the area. They speak the Xhosa language. The report's recommendations are not binding, but two of the commission's members are prominent Afrikaners, members of the South African hierarchy. Others include two American academics, a black Ciskeian and white South Afri. cans of English background. Widely Criticized Concept The homeland concept has been widely criticized and rejected outside South Africa as offering the country's blacks a professed independence that is basically fraudulent and not based on the expressed wishes of the area's population. More radical than the report's criticism of independence for Ciskei is its proposal for an experimental government for the area in which power would be shared equally by blacks and whites, a contradiction of the political philosophy of separate development of the races that is the basis of South Africa's political system. The homeland policy designates certain areas within the country bantustans, or black tribal homelands, with some limited, political rights. Ciskei is one of these so called homelands. The ultimate goal is to create 10 homelands, with South Afri. ca's blacks assigned to them on the basis of tribal affiliation. They would thus lose South African status and citizenship. Three states have already been declared independent under this plan: Transkei was the first, in 1976, followed by Bophuthatswana in 1977 and Venda in 1979. Most countries, including the United States, have refused to recognize the new areas as independent nations. The commission says that even the present status of the Ciskei area is pretierable to independence on terms such a's those accepted by Transkei, Bophuthat swana and Venda. It gives several reasons for this judgment, including the area's small size and poor economic
situation, the fact that it would not gain international recognition as a nation and the results of a survey that showed, the report said, that “two out of three Ciskeians oppose separation on present terms." Conditions for Independence Independence would be acceptable, the report said, only if the majority of Ciske ians, both those living within the designated areas and the greater number living in South Africa, voted in favor of it in a “carefully supervised referendum." Other conditions would be the maintenance of the right of Ciskeians to work in South Africa and to choose South African status, that the area be enlarged somewhat and that South Africa provide "equitable financial support.” Robert I. Rotberg, a professor of political science and history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the commission's two American members, said that “although the chances of this being accepted readily in the near future are not as high as we would wish the hope is that there will be a recognition be fore too long of its essential validity.” The other American member of the commission was Peter Kilby, professor of economics at Wesleyan University. The commission proposed that Ciskei become a "condominium" for an experimental period of 10 years, remaining part of South Africa but with a “high degree of internal autonomy,” including non-enforcement of South Africa's discrimina. tory legislation. Any form of government would have as an "essential feature" the sharing of power between whites and blacks.
By Rushworth M. Kidder Loodon “The election will be messy.” With these words an official government Africa-watcher here summed up his private view of the situation in Rhodesia. As Rhodesia's 200,000-plus whites went to the polls Feb. 14 in the first leg of “free and fair” elections, the British government was clearly worried. Gone is the euphoria that bubbled up as the Lancaster House conference on the future of Rhodesia ended in December. Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington, who steered the conference through rough seas, was then seen as a hero. Britain's diplomatic stock was rising. Now, as hypothetical discussions give way to stark realities, the British Governor of Rhodesia, Lord Soames, is under constant verbal siege. And Britain's stock has dropped first with the 14-to-1 vote against Britain in the United Nations Security Council Feb. 3, and then with the Feb. 13 condemnation (mild though it was) by the Organization of African Unity. The burning issue is “intimidation" – the use of guns instead of arguments to sway Rho desia's 7 million blacks when they vote in a separate election Feb. 27 through 29. Marxist candidate Robert Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader, accuses Rhodesian security forces of brutality. As evidence, he cites several recent attempts on his life, the Feb. 14 arrest of five of his senior officials at Shabani, Rhodesia, and a sheaf of other complaints. But British intelligence sources are convinced that Mr. Mugabe's men are largely responsible for the intimidation. Vast stretches in the eastern portion of the country are virtually off-limits for any but Mr. Mugabe's campaigners including his, former Patriotic Front ally, Joshua Nkomo. These sources claim that an estimated 4,000 guerrillas loyal to Mr. Mugabe still are in the Rhodesian bush, with orders not to re port to designated holding camps but instead to retain control of the population in these largely rural and tribal lands. Lord Soames has threatened to set aside ballots from areas where intimidation is rife, or to refuse to allow people there to vote. Such a course undoubtedly would provoke further international condemnation of Britain. Yet the British government, firmly backing Lord Soames' decisions, feels it may be the only way to prevent a rigged takeover by Mr. Mugabe which also would provoke a loud outcry, notably from anti-Communist governments. Britain now plans to send an additional 500 policemen and soldiers to act as unarmed ob servers at the polling places. Mr. Mugabe has threatened a return to warfare if the elections fail. Yet there is hope the ballot will win out over the battlefield.
Kenya Confirms Accond On Use of Bases by U.S.
BONN, Feb. 13 (Reuters) - President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya confirmed today that he had agreed to let United States military forces operate from his country in the event of an emergency in the Persian Guil region. But President Moi, who is on a state visit to West Germany, stressed at a **ws conference here that Kenya was simply offering facilities for the use of American forces and aircraft and that there was no question of establishment of military bases. Oman and Somalia also have tren tentative agreement to altos United States military forces to operate from their territory in the event of a cror gency in the Gulf area. President Moi is scheduled to ver the United States for talks with proident Carter from February 19 to 22.
Chad Moves Toward Peace After Years of Strife
By Leon Dash Washington Post Foreign Service
NDJAMENA, Chad This Central African country deeply divided by a labyrinth of ethnic and religious ri. valry and 14 years of civil war, has managed a few halting steps toward peace with a newly formed but faction-riven coalition government. A brittle day-to-day peace, occasionally shattered by gunfights at night, hangs over Ndjamena, seat of the 11. faction administration that has barely been able to govern since its formation in November, The conflicts that daily rend Chad -Moslem against Moslem and Moslem against the southern blacks—re. flect the underlying tensions that stretch across the continent along the southern fringe of the Sahara where the desert meets tropical Africa. Through nine countries, from Sudan to Mauritania, Arabs and AfroArab Moslems who dominate the northern portion of the belt have lived for generations in conflict and tenuous coexistence with the blacks, both Christians and believers in tradi. tional African religions such as ani. mism, of the southern forest belt. Chad's land area, twice the size of Texas but half of it desert, provides a scant subsistence for its population. The little development that has occur. red since independence was funneled to the south. Cotton grown in the south provides 80 percent of Chad's exports but France has provided most of the country's $60 million annual budget. An American oil company. Continental, has discovered some minor oil fields around Lake Chad north of here and an as yet undetermined amount of oil in the south. Fighting broke out in Chad, a poor, little-known landlocked country, in the mid-1960s after France, in 1960, turned power over to a southern blackdominated government. The rebellion began among Moslem groups in the east and spread north. "The southerners long abused the northern [Moslems] and kept them out of a share of power after independence.” said a knowledgeable African diplomat. The southerners "had a strong desire for retribution” for the past oppression they had suffered under the Moslems, he said. The precolonial boundaries of Chad contained several highly centralized Islamic Arab and Afro-Arab kingdoms dating back more than a thousand years. The leaders of these kingdoms sanctioned slave raids and roundups in the tropical forest belt, among the non-Islamic southern blacks, until early in this century. After the French completed the con. quest of Chad, the southern blacks welcomed them as protectors. A mi
nority converted to Christianity and entered mission schools. The Moslems remained aloof from contact with the French and Western education. They lived steeped in their centuries-old traditions, conventions that have also kept the present-day descendants of the old Islamic kingdoms divided among tnemselves. Consequently, by independence, the blacks made up as much as 90 percent of the government and civil bureauc. racy in a country where at least half of the 4 million population is Moslem. The southerners, with military and economic assistance from France, were able to hold onto power until last February when a short-lived coalition between the government and one Moslem faction · degenerated into fighting here. The French who maintain a 1,200-man peacekeeping force in the city, remained neutral and, with other Moslem factions joining in the fighting, the southerners were swept from power. But before they retreated to their stronghold in the south, the southern army massacred thousands of Moslem civilians in Ndjamena. After capturing the city, the northerners retal. iated, killing equal numbers of southerners. More than 100,000 southern. ers fled south, dropping the population of the city to about 100,000 and leaving the civil bureaucracy staffed. Thousands of Moslem traders in the south also were killed. After a half-year with no government, the southerners and 10 Moslem
factions met in Lagos, Nigeria, in Au. gust and after squabbling, put together a shaky coalition government on Nov. 12. The four strongest of the oiten con. tentious factions are led by: • Chad's interim president, Gouk. ouni Oueddei, in his late 30s, a modest but tough guerrilla leader from the northern desert. Goukouni has a reputation as a conciliator, and knowledgeable observers give him the best chance of holding the government together until elec. tions, still unscheduled, are held to form a permanent government. Goukouni leads a 7,000 man guerrilla group called the Popular Front Armed Forces, made up mainly of his Toubou desert nomads. • Vice President Wadal Abelkader Kamogue, 40, is a well-educated southerner and self-promoted colonel who commands the still intact 6,000-man southerner army called the Chadian Armed Forces, now based in the southwest. Leader of the southern blacks, the self-confident Kamougue has managed to wrangle for his fac. tion 10 out of the 22 ministrial posts in the transitional government. • Defense Minister Hissene Habre, 37, shrewd, aggressive and ambitious. He and Kamougue are implacable enemies as both led forces that committed the massacres of southerners and Moslems a year ago. Habre, a Frencheducated Moslem lawyer, has a 5,000member guerrilla group called the Armed Forces of the North. It is based among his Anakaza people in the northeast and fought a fourth Moslem faction recently, successfully expanding its control in eastern Chad. Interior Minister Mahamat Abba Seid, 50, a Moslem fundamentalist, commands the approximately 6,500 guerrillas of a loose three-party group called the Communal Armed Forces, based among the decendants of the old southeastern Islamic kingdoms of Ouadai and Baguirmi. Seid's forces lost a battle with Habre's and Seid has made a hasty military alliance with President Goukouni in an effort to isolate Habre. The agreement in Lagos also provides for a three-country African peacekeeping force from Guinea, Benin and Congo to replace the French soldiers. The first contingent, 400 Congolese soldiers, arrived here on Algerian planes in mid-January. The Chadian factions have agreed to withdraw their forces from the capital by early February. "Chad is like Sudan," said a diplomat from Sudan, where an almost two Page 23
Rich Lands Told to Loosen Reins on Aid to Poor Ones
Bv BERNARD D. NOSSITER Brandt, other prominent people taking UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Feb. 12 - A part in the study o Eduardo Frei Moncommission of internationally prominent men and women called on rich nations talva, forine. President of Chile; former today to loosen their purse strings and Prime Ministers Eswird Heath of Brit. relax control over tens of billions of dol. ain and Olof Palme of Sweden; L. K. Jah, lars in additional aid for the world's former head of India's central bank; poorer states. Adam Malik of Lebanon, former Presi. The group, under the chairmanship of dent of the United Nations General As. Willy Brandt, the former West German sembly; Edgard Pisani, former French Chancellor, urged an emergency in Minister of Agriculture; Katharine crease in aid of $30 billion a year by 1985. Graham, chairman of The Washington That would yield two and a half times the Post Company, and Peter G. Peterson, a present level. former Secretary of Commerce who is In all, the Brandt commission called now chairman of Lehman Brothers Kuhn for an expansion of loans and aid that Loeb Inc. would total $50 to $60 billion a year over Titled “North-South, A Program for the next five years. When President Fidel Survival," the report contains none of the Castro of Cuba spoke at the United Na. dissenting footnotes or explanations of tions last fall he urged the rich nations to separate views common in studies of this give the poor $300 billion over a 10 year kind. A commission economist said this period. reflected the fact that the recommenda. The most novel feature of the 304-page tions were unanimous. report issued by the commission is a The report is being published as a series of proposals ta weaken the control paperback by the MIT Press of Cam. of national legislatures over the granting bridge, Mass., and will be available in of aid. The commission calls for "univer. mid-March at a cost of $4.95. sal taxation" of all countries with the size In many respects, the study parallels of their contributions linked to their na the call for a "new international eco tional incomes. As a starter, the study nomic order" issued at Algiers in 1973 by urges consideration of a new World the nations that profess nonalignment. Development Fund to collect and distrib One major difference is the present plea ute taxes on foreign trade, especially on for more stable oil supplies and prices. arms, and the mining of minerals in the But this feature is implicit in the latest version of the new economic order deep sea. To make this package more attractive adopted by the nonaligned movement at to the rich nations, the program also calls its meeting in Havana last summer. for "assured supplies" from oil produc The Brandt commission's underlying assumption is that aid promotes develop ers and "more predictable and gradual price increases.” But it also proposes ment in the poor nations of the Southern protecting the earnings of oil producers Hemisphere and the more the better. from inflation and currency depreciation. This view has been challenged by some economists, notably Peter T. Bauer, but The commission insists that “a tunda. is not discussed in the document. mental change in relations between To reach the study's aid target in 1985, North and South as well as East and West the report calls on the rich nations to is crucial" if the 1980's are to avert "even commit themselves to giving sevengreater catastrophes than the 1930's." The report suggests that unless the pro tenths of 1 percent of their total yearly gram is adopted, the world economy output. This is twice their average cur. faces "a somber future" with “no end to rent share and compares with the 0.27 poverty and hunger; continuing world percent in the United States. The comstagnation combined with inflation; in mission calls for a meeting of 25 repre ternational monetary disorder; mounting sentative world leaders to begin adopting debts and deficits; protectionism; major the interlocking program. By the year tensions between countries competing for 2000, the commission wants the rich counenergy, food and raw materials; growing tries to raise their aid level nearly 50 perworld population and more unemploy. cent more, to 1 percent of their gross nament" and, “overshadowing everything tional product. the menacing arms race." The report urges a major shift in power The document stems from a 1977 pra within international institutions like the posal by Robert S. McNamara, president World Bank and the International Mone- WASHINGTON, D. C. 20520
cary Fund. Their voting arrangements and management, largely based on the economic importance of nations, do not give poor countries a big enough voice, the document declares. It says that the proposed new World Development Fund, designed to channel the new international taxes untied to national budgets, should also divide decision-making more evenly" among rich and poor countries. Another recommendation would again double the recently doubled lending power of the World Bank, to $160 billion. The document does not discuss objections by senior bank officials that they are al. ready experiencing problems in supervising the loans they now make. But this problem could be overcome by the commission's proposal that more loans sim. ply support the budgets of the poor nations and not be tied to specific projects like dams, roads or clinics. The commission would also put the International Monetary Fund into the aid business by tying the distribution of its special drawing rights, newly created reserves, to the needs of the poor and also use the monetary fund's gold for aid. The report suggests raising of the export earnings of the poor nations through commodity agreements to put floors under the prices of the raw materials they sell. It also calls for freer trade to lower barriers in the markets of the rich countries against poor ones who process or make manufactured goods from these commodities. The document also proposes that the Soviet Union and its allies take part in the program. Mr. Brandt, in an introduction, said leaders in the East view mankind's problems "with great seriousness.” Moscow, however, has insisted that aid pra grams reflect a debt owed by “imperialist" nations to former colonies. Other members of the commission were: Abdlatif Y. al-Hamad, director general of the Kuwait Fund for Arabic Economic Development; Rodrigo Botero Montoya, former Finance Minister of ca lombia; Antoine Kipsa Dakouré, adviser to the President, Upper Volta; Amir H. Jamal, Minister of Finance, Tanzania; Khatijah Ahmad, Malaysian economist and banker; Haruki Mori, former Japa. nese Ambassador to Britain; Joe Morris, president emeritus of the Canadian Labor Congress; Shridath Ramphal of Guyana, Commonwealth Secretary General, and Layachi Yaker, Algerian Am. bassador to the Soviet Union. Page 24
MU ZOREWA TOUCHY ON FINANCIAL LINKS (Continued)
Flies Off in a Snit The 54-year-old clergyman flew off in a visible snit, not to recover until the wheels touched down near a cor patch outside the local chief's house in the vil. lage of Mukarakate. He was given a seat on a collapsible metal chair before a paint-chipped metal card table beneath a mimosa tree. Around him were the nine poured-concrete buildings that comprised the town, two of them bombed out. Aides rigged up a public-address system powered by three 12-volt car bat. teries, and Bishop Muzorewa rose to speak for the second time that morning. Unlike his earlier audience, these 200 or
so listeners would not refer to his laven- Speaking in Shona, his first language Christian Workers in Nashville, Tenn., he could stand and speak like this. A year ago, his mother recalled for the author Martin Meredith: "While I was busy
working in the fields, he would occupy himself by building sand heaps and then standing in front to preach to them." As the Bishop spoke, a woman ap proached with a clay pot full of water on her head, a wooden dipper floating in it. Fifteen yards from the paint-chipped table the woman dropped to the floor and walked on her knees across the scorched dirt. The Bishop dipped out a drink with scarcely a pause in speech. He spoke for an hour and then got on his plane to fly to another speech. Before the day was done he would also cut short a question that began with the word “if." “Not if, if, if," the Bishop said. "I know you know English better than that. The word is when, as in when I win the election." FEBRUARY 16, 1900
Britain has to provide Zimbabwe-Rhodesia with the allow him to ban politicians who advocate intimidation ances by himself, he should ask for the assistance of would and then, with a murmur of Realpolitik, to slip off back probably mean a return to an unwinnable war; a to Whitehall as quickly as possible would be Albion at political quandary for Britain and South Africa; and an its perfidious worst. upset to the jigsaw puzzle of southern Africa just when But Mr Mugabe is not alone in preferring intimida- the pieces are at last starting to fit. It is nevertheless by tion to persuasion, as the two attempts on his life in a no means an impossibility. Lord Soames has been week have shown. Bishop Muzorewa's auxiliaries have under enotnous pressure from the white intransigents. done their inexcusable share of gunpoint “electioneer- He should meet it with the counter-pressure of the flat ing”. Panicked white voices have been heard, first in a statement that a white coup would leave the white whisper but now louder, advocating a coup d'etat that minority definitively friendless. would turn things back to 1965. In the last two weeks before the election, Lord Soames, the British governor, Don't flinch has to find a way of keeping the precarious balance that The problem runs full circle. If Mr Mugabe's party, or has been so improbably maintained since the Lancaster any other, is seen to gain power through intimidation, House talks started in September. Having waited 15 Britain will have failed to provide the free election it years for free elections in Zimbabwe, Britain must not has spent so many years promising. And that will give allow them to become demonstrably unfree in the final the excuse to others to resort to their own lawlesses; fortnight. Far better to risk fury now in the painful pursuit oi This requires Lord Soames to do four things: fairness than to play into the hands of those, black si 1. Use to the full, and with an ear deaf to protest, the white, who never liked the taste of democracy in ile extra powers he has taken in the past fortnight. These first place. Page 25
No-Show Olympics Talk In White House Toasts
Kenya's Daniel T. arap Moi strode up Perhaps half of the dinner guests were needed ask me, nobody needed sit on me, the White Hou steps last night, the first black Americans, among them a fragile look. when the people of Afghanistan have been su. king and leader ever to make a state visit ing Eubie Blake, Benjamin Hooks and Su- pressed. As I said before, where the lives of to Washington. preme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who people are threatened, mine is theatened.” Carrying a gold-banded ivory cane Moi commended in his toast for his help to The toasts, coming before the menu of called a "fimbo” in one hand and shaking Kenya in the structuring of its constitution. quiche, red snapper and chocolate mousse, President Carter's with the other, the Praising Kenya's political and economic caused Moi to question whether he should tall, quiet African — whose 18 months' success, Carter said in his toast that after the speak “when everyone is ready for their dinleadership has brought Kenya closer to death of Kenyatta "The world waited with ner.” the United States than at any time in its bated breath" to see if democracy in Kenya history was being honored at a White would stand the test of a change of leadership. thanked the United States for its aid to Kenya But he did, and with many warm words House state dinner. “He's very impressive. He took a dif. Not only did it pass the test, but under Moi, over the years. Despite Kenya's success ficult situation in hand in succeeding Carter said, the East African nation remains "which is fairly impressive by standards elseJomo Kenyatta, “Assistant Secretary of “a rock, an anchor and a bastion of stability" where in the developing world," the visiting State for African Affairs Richard Moose that is an example to other developing na- president warned, the future for developing said admiringly, adding · "Americans tions. nations remains uncertain unless the dewere worried when George Washington died. Could anyone else be president?" In a reference to Kenya's refusal to attend veloped nations commit themselves to third world economic improvements. Also, he menKenya's recent decision to boycott the famous runner myself" he had always adthe Moscow Olympics, Carter joked that “as a tioned, third world nations' territorial integolympics and its agreement to permit the mired Kenya's runners. Yet Kenya had de: rity is by no means assured. “There is no disU.S. expanded use of facilities for ships cided on its own initiative not to attend tinction between what is happening today and what could happen tomorrow to any country,” and planes in the wake of the Afghanis. because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. he said in a clear reference to Afghanistan. tan invasion, Moose said, does not in. volve “possessing or holding” any actual Responding, Moi drew attention to Kenya's The Kenyan praised Carter's human rights "sacrifice," pointing out that Kenyan athletes policy lavishly. It is not the weapons the Kenyan land. "We did not ask them for bases," he had expected to win gold and silver medals at United States has “but its cherished ideals said. “We're talking about using their fa the Olympics. Taking a side swipe at neighbor: from George Washington to Jimmy Carter cilities more frequently." ing Uganda, the Kenyan president said which has made this a strong nation. Army Secretary Clifford Alexander "Others, of course, are participating with no After dinner two classical pianists, Delphin denied any surprise over the fact that prospect of securing one!” (medal). and Romain, played Rachmaninoff and a Kenya is supporting the U.S. "We have But Kenya's decision was not influenced by scherzo by Thomas Kerr called “Didn't My good relations and they're getting better. any outside persuasion, he noted. “Nobody Lord Deliver Daniel.” We have a lot more allies in Africa than you'd think.” THE WASHINGTON POST February 22, 1980 Moi, a devout Christian who does not s.noke or drink, was vice president for 11 years before Kenya's famous leader Keny. atta died in August 1978. As vice president, Moi had visited the Senegalese Art: Updating a Rich Tradition , United States before, since Kenyatta hated to fly. But this time, as a state visi. By Jo Ann Lewis tors. Under Islam, carved images were forbidden by the Koran. tor, he is staying at Blair House. Few ancient cultures have managed Thus, when Senegal's poet-presiThe Kenyan flags are flying. And to translate their traditional art forms dent, Leopold Senghor, undertook to full protocol of Moi's visit one which into fresh 20th-century idioms. But rouse what he calls the "collective lasts until Friday – is in force. the “Contemporary Art of Senegal," black unconscious" through the arts, which opens today at the Corcoran, he was-stylistically, at least-begin. A former school teacher who left the class. shows that Senegal has managed to do ning anew. A national school of art room for politics 25 years ago, a divorced man precisely that. was established, along with a tapestry and the father of seven children, Moi was tra. Dramatically installed in the Cor. workshop in Thies. According to War velling with an exclusively male party 14 coran atrium amid spotlights and pot- ren Robbins, director of the Museum officials of the Kenyan government, some 20 ted greens, this exhibition includes 75 of African Art, Senegal is now at the security men and a handful of journalists. works-paintings, drawings, prints, forefront of contemporary developThe White House's whole collection of ver. sculpture and several large and stun ments in the visual arts in Africa. meil — giant urns centering every table, ash. ning tapestries—which dominate the But if Senegal had lost its visual show. trays, confectionary dishes and the matching arts heritage, a strong oral tradition Most were created by artsts who flatwear - glimmered in golden splendor in remained, and the subject matter here came to maturity after 1960, when the East Room. comes straight out of the mythology Senegal won its independence from and history of the distant past. Is. Bouquets of pussy willows, buddlea and France. If stylistic independence from lamic elements enter :(n-but even in white tulips, which a florist warmed open the French has not yet been achieved, the most abstract of these highly patwith a hairdryer before dinner, decorated the the artists have given it a good try. terned, decorative, flattened forms, round tables. Several works inevitably call up the titles, reveal speeific sources in memories of Picasso. But Picasso, the lives and ancient memories of the A number of women wore short dresses, an after all, learned abstraction from people. increasing trend these days at the White African art. Painting techniques here range House — and one that in retrospect makes the Unlike most of its West African from the popular art of "reverse" fuss three years ago over Margaret Trudeau's neighbors, Senegal no longer had a painting, on glass-brightly colored short dress seem somewhat ridiculous. continuous tradition in the plastic arts works depicting urban life, mostly when independence came. Vith colon made by untutored artists to a comOne woman, the wife of Los Angeles City ization had come Christianity-which plex, multi-media work using gesso Councilman David Cunningham, even came destroyed (or dispersed to European and sand to depict the slaughtering of braless in a brown satin dress. and American museums) the masks Continued on Pg. 11 Page 26
South Africa: Changing Words Cannot Prevent a Racial Explosion
By Roger Wilkins as well. While I was in South Africa, Prime Minister P.W. Botha said that the word apartheid couldn't readily be translated into This brother. Go to Johannesburg! English, but that “good neighborliness” was the best approximaWhite man go tion. Minister Koornhof is the man who declared at the National Press To Johannesburg - He come back! Black man go Club in Washington last year, “Apartheid is dead.” Minister Koornhof is the man whom my friends in Soweto call “the man of To Johannesburg! Never come back! many promises." The government has four basic policy goals, according to Koorn hof. They are: full equality to all under the law; full participation in for, Johannesburg. I was curious and I was excited. I was not afraid, but I was apprehensive. I the decision-making process; full citizenship rights for all; and full human rights for all, regardless of race, creed or color. was black. “It is a thrilling period here,” Koornhof said. "The time factor is Those words are from "Lost in the Stars,” the such that the achievement of all of this could occur soon, perhaps musical based on "Cry the Beloved Country," Alan in two and a half or three years." Paton's elegant novel about South Africa. I had read But somehow the thrill shrivels when the minister is asked how it when it was a new book, when I was 16, the year much change is really envisaged. I asked him, for example, whether my hometown first elected Gerald R. Ford as its rep full human rights meant that anybody now restricted to living in resentative in Congress. It was a novel of love, sad Soweto and that means any black living around Johannesburg ness, cruelty and blindness, and from that book on, the idea of South Africa was more powerful to me except live-in servants who live apart from their families could live anywhere in Johannesburg they could afford. Well, as it turned than the idea of any other country. Its racism was out, “full” human rights didn't exactly go that far. enough like our racism to be easily comprehended by “We are groping toward a few gray areas every black in America, and yet it was so bloated, so zones where anybody can live," the minister said, “but frankly, the issue of where people comprehensive, so cruel, selfish and ridiculous as to live is too hard to deal with politically right now. Maybe later." constitute the ultimate metaphor for white evil What about full citizenship rights? Did that mean that racism, barbed and unshackled. any black citizen would have the same right to participate in picking national South Africa, for me, was the heart of whiteness. leadership that any white person had? Well, again, not exactly. Now I was to see the country for the first time. Reality would intrude upon fantasy. Andy Young “One man, one vote is out. We mean full participation in the dechuckled when I asked him what to expect and said cision-making process,” the minister explained. “In a plural society, you need good local government, good regional government, and that I would be right at home. But Andy is a south then the top level of the government will be good." erner and I had left the South as a child, never to be comfortable there again until the civil rights revolu “I am talking about good regional governtion had settled in and had changed the place. My ment,” Dr. Koornhof said. “I hate the word parents, my children, my sisters and my close friends 'homelands.' People in Soweto and people in all know that I don't suffer white arrogance easily or the regions will have full participation in quietly. They had all warned me to be careful; to cool myself out. their governments. The government of South Africa has shed more power in the last This boy we love, three years than any other government in This brother. the world. The parliament of the Transkei, Go to Johannesburg!... for example, is equal in power to the parliaTo Johnnesburg! Never come back! ment in the Republic of South Africa.” Never come back! The homelands of which the minister But I came back. And, if the South African government will let spoke are the tribal areas to which the govme, I will return to Johannesburg, to Soweto, to KwaZulu, to Pre ernment of South Africa has assigned blacks toria, to Durban, to Kwamashu, to East London and to Capetown by tribal origin: No matter where they work, gain and again. For I learned that I could love South Africa, or at that is their home and once they are no least the Azania that someday it is sure to be. And I am captivated longer employed, that is where they must reby the liberation struggle there a struggle that I think is the turn. The government's policy is to turn most profound human confrontation now occurring. Andy was these homelands into "independent" counright. I felt all the rage and love of home and also the profound tries. Black South Africans have their citianguish of watching the peoples of that rich and lovely land mov zenship transferred to those “countries” and, ing almost inexorably toward violence, chaos, and, for many of for all practical purposes, become stateless, them, doom. because no country in the world recognizes these bastard creations. Transkei is one of o the "independents," poor, pitiful, a stooge of the Republic of South Africa. The Bantu Affairs Building at the corner of Jacob Mare and Paul The word in Johannesburg just before I left was that the government of Transkei friendly face. Koornhof is a former Rhodes scholar, the father of a was flat broke and that it had had to apply. Continued on Pg. 14 Rhodes scholar and the minister of a department that was formerly called Bantu Affairs but is now called the Department of Coopera- Roger Wilkins, a former member of The Washingtide Post edition and Development – one of the many instances I saw in South tarial page staff, is a New York-based free-lance write. This ar Africa of the Afrikaner belief that changing words changes reality ticle is excerpted from a series published in The Village Voice. |
Which body of water was not bordered by a non-aligned nation?
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