New Hope for a Settlement

Mrs. Thatcher finds a fresh approach for Zimbabwe-Rhodesia

When Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Lusaka at the end of a two-week tour of Africa, she was cheered by Zambians everywhere she went as "Queenie! Queenie!" When Britain's other female leader, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, arrived in the same city for the Commonwealth Conference, she got a reception that might better have been accorded the queen of a leper colony. By week's end, however, her peers among the 41 Commonwealth leaders at the eight-day conference readily acknowledged that Mrs. Thatcher had made an important contribution toward solving an explosive issue that threatened to wreck the conference--namely, the problem of how to bring genuine majority rule to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. After arriving in Lusaka "with two horns and a tail," as she put it, Britain's new Prime Minister had suddenly become a symbol of hope.

The breakthrough came after Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere called on Britain to take the lead in proposing a new Rhodesian constitution, calling an all-parties conference and holding new elections under Commonwealth auspices.

Nyerere acknowledged that certain white minority rights should be guaranteed; but he also called for drastic revisions in the seven-month-old constitution of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, which gives whites a disproportionate share of seats in the legislature and effective control of the armed forces, police, civil service and judiciary for five years. To the surprise of many delegates present, Mrs. Thatcher matched the African proposals, declaring that Britain was determined to achieve genuine majority rule in Salisbury and would take the primary responsibility for bringing it about. In fact, she and her Cabinet colleagues had worked out the Tory government's African position before the conference began. But by publicly announcing it at the Lusaka summit, in response to African demands, she made it seem as though she had heeded Commonwealth views.

Mrs. Thatcher's success was all the more remarkable in light of the animosity that had greeted her on arrival. Zambian reporters asked her rude questions and crowds booed her. During a reception at the British High Commission in Lusaka, a group of her expatriate countrymen advised her, "Don't be bullied, Prime Minister." She replied coolly, "I am not bulliable." But she realized that her earlier comments in support of the Salisbury government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa had been ill-advised and had offended many Africans. She has since accepted the view of colleagues, including her Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, that whatever London does about Zimbabwe-Rhodesia must have broad international support, especially from African states, the U.S. and Western Europe.

The harshest reminder of black Africa's feelings about the Salisbury regime came from populous, oil-rich Nigeria. As the conference began, Lagos announced that it was nationalizing the Nigerian interests of British Petroleum. The official explanation was that BP had been selling oil from the North Sea and elsewhere to South Africa, a charge that the British denied. In any case, the Nigerians acknowledged privately that the takeover was really intended to show Britain what it could expect if it recognized the Muzorewa regime in defiance of black African opinion.

Addressing her 40 male colleagues seated at the great doughnut-shaped table in Lusaka, Mrs. Thatcher spoke more softly than she usually does at Westminster. After thanking the delegates for their advice, she assured them: "The aim of the British government is to return Rhodesia to legality on a basis which the Commonwealth and the international community as a whole will find acceptable." After she concurred with Nyerere's proposals, gratified African delegates promised to try to bring the Patriotic Front into agreement with the plan.

If all goes well, the next step could be a ceasefire, followed by an all-parties constitutional conference and new elections. It was certain that the British would insist that former Prime Minister Ian Smith, now a Minister Without Portfolio in Muzorewa's government, be dropped entirely. They may also try once more to urge Joshua Nkomo, co-leader of the Patriotic Front guerrillas, to join the Salisbury regime, though Nkomo insisted at week's end that he had no intention of negotiating with the Muzorewa government and threatened to continue the fighting.

A lot will also depend on Muzorewa and his white colleagues. If the whites refuse to budge, they can block the process, at least temporarily. But if they agree to the Commonwealth proposals, and if the guerrilla leaders can be persuaded to join the negotiating process, the seemingly endless transition of Rhodesia to majority rule could be very nearly complete.

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