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S.F

. Sunday E

xaminer &

Chronicle

ilEExamintg—

Oc t ; 1 0 1976

Th

e African

leaders K

issinger ign

ored

David O

lsen, a former director of the C

ambridge-

based Africa R

esearch Group, is co-author of "R

ace to

Pow

er: The S

truggle fo

r South

ern A

frica" (A

nchor Press, 1974).

By D

avid Olsen

Pacific N

ews S

ervice W

ASH

ING

TO

N —

Secretary of State Kissinger's

ove to

foster a m

oderate b

lack g

overn

men

t in

hodesia carefu

lly av

oid

ed co

ntact w

ith th

e very

leaders w

ho will hold the trum

p cards in forthcoming

negotiations.

These m

en are the radical nationalist leaders. T

hey have overshadowed the older, m

ore moderate

leaders in

three o

f the m

ost cru

cial areas: Their

,com

man

d o

f military

forces, p

opular su

pport an

d

?: -backing by other important A

frican leaders. Y

et n

one h

as b

een in

clu

ded in

the e

arly

s. negotiations to try to establish an interim

government

. m R

hodesia.

The key radical leaders include:

—R

obert Mugabe, leader of the leftist political

party, ZA

NU

, and major representative of m

ost of the Z

imbabw

ean guerrilla fighters based in neighboring M

ozambique. M

ugabe, a former teacher, w

as impris-

oned by the an Sm

ith regime for 11 years for political

activities. —

Pres4dent S

amora M

achel of Mozam

bique, in

strum

ental in

creating th

e Zim

bab

we P

eople's

Arm

y in

1974 in

an effo

rt to u

nify

the g

uerrilla

factions. He probably has m

ore influence with the

guerrillas than any other outsider. —

Methodist B

ishop Abel M

uzorewa, leader of the

militant faction of the R

hodesian African N

ational C

ouncil, a coalition of nationalist groups. Some say he

has th

e strongest p

opular b

ackin

g o

f all black

Z

imbabw

ean leaders.

—T

he high comm

and of the Zim

babwe P

eople's A

rmy, com

posed of 18 leaders of ZA

NU

and ZA

PU

, th

e old

est and m

ost im

portan

t African

political

parties in Rhodesia.

—P

residen

t Agostin

ho N

eto o

f Angola. L

ike

Mach

el, he's w

ary o

f Am

erican attem

pts to

help

structure A

frica's future. U.S

. relations with N

eto's M

PL

A-led

govern

men

t hav

e been

strained

since

Angola's civil w

ar.

Kissinger concentrated instead on "m

oderate" and non-aligned politicians and on P

rime M

inister Ian S

mith, leader of R

hodesia's white m

inority govern-m

ent.

The only nationalist leader K

issinger met w

as Joshua N

komo, considered a m

oderate both at home

and abroad. He cam

e to prominence as one of the

original nationalist agitators in the late 1940s, but had lost m

ost of his following by early 1976 w

hen he

negotiated unsuccessfully on his own w

ith Sm

ith. A

devout Christian, N

komo stresses peaceful

negotiation and non-violent protest as the road to black m

ajority rule in Rhodesia. G

uerrilla leaders branded him

a traitor after his talks with S

mith.

Yet in

pro

of o

f the M

idas-to

uch

quality

of a

Kissinger visit, w

hen Nkom

o returned to Salisbury

Sept. 25 after the m

eeting, he drew a larger crow

d than the popular, radical M

uzorewa attracted five

days later.

The rad

ical leaders K

issinger sh

unned

hav

e called for an im

mediate transfer of pow

er. That's a

rejection of the British-A

merican proposal for a tw

o-year transition period.

"We are talking about m

ajority rule in four to six w

eeks, w

hen

with

the fo

rmatio

n o

f an in

terim

govern

men

t the p

ow

ers of th

e govern

men

t of

Rhodesia w

ill be passed on to the majority," said

Tanzania's P

resident Nyerere.

The m

ilitant leaders also have stressed that they w

on't allow the structure of the interim

government

to be determined by w

hites. And they have rejected

Sm

ith's proposal that the ministries of defense and

law an

d o

rder rem

ain in

white h

ands d

urin

g th

e transition period.

In addition, the radical leadership is comm

itted to som

e form of A

frican socialism. T

hey are believed to be neither pro-S

oviet nor pro-Chinese, but to w

ant so

me fo

rm o

f natio

nal p

lannin

g to

restructu

re the

white-dom

inated capitalist economy.

Kissin

ger's av

oid

ance o

f the rad

ical leaders

appears to

be in

keep

ing w

ith h

is inten

tions fo

r a R

hodesian settlement. D

iplomats aboard K

issinger's plane said he "is aim

ing for the emergence of a belt of

friendly

pro

-western

states from

Nam

ibia, o

n th

e so

uth

Atlan

tic seaboard

, thro

ugh lan

dlo

cked

Bot-

swana to R

hodesia."

Som

e observers point out that even if Kissinger

had

invited

these lead

ers to talk

, they

mig

ht h

ave

refused out of fear of losing credibility with their

peers. A

ll Zim

bab

wean

radical lead

ers hav

e de-

nounced Kissinger's involvem

ent in the Rhodesian

crisis.

Sam

ora

Mach

el, p

residen

t of M

oza

mb

iqu

e an

d th

e str

on

gest

ou

tside

influ

ence o

n

the g

uerrilla

s