Richard's Safari of Salvation

RHODESIA Richard's Safari of Salvation

It was a diplomatic shuttle, but not exactly in the Kissinger mode: no custom-fitted Air Force jet, no phalanx of aides, bodyguards and reporters. British Envoy Ivor Richard last week hopped from capital to capital in southern and eastern Africa in a modest chartered twin-engined Hawker Siddeley executive jet, arrived at airports with little fanfare and had only four Foreign Office staffers in tow. Richard, who is Britain's chief delegate to the United Nations, was desperately trying to breathe life into the seemingly paralyzed efforts to transfer power peacefully from Rhodesia's 271,000 whites to its 6.2 million blacks. Skirmishes between Rhodesian forces and black Nationalist guerrillas are now taking more than 300 black and white lives each month, and all-out racial war is a real danger if negotiations fail. Thus Richard's shuttle has been dubbed by some officials and journalists in southern Africa a safari of salvation.

Few were willing to give Richard better than even odds on success. There has been little progress toward a Rhodesian settlement since last fall, when Kissinger's whirlwind mission established the fragile basis for talks in Geneva between Prime Minister Ian Smith's white-dominated regime and four black nationalist leaders--Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole (TIME, Nov. 15). For seven frustrating weeks Richard, as chairman of the conference, tried to coax the participants beyond acrimonious haggling. With almost nothing accomplished, the talks recessed for the holidays.

To break the deadlock when and if the talks reconvene in mid-January as scheduled, Richard last week made firm Britain's readiness to accept a major role in the transition period from white to black rule. As he explained at a press conference in Pretoria, "What is needed is a direct British presence to hold the balance between the two sides. The whites are entitled to be assured that the transition will be peaceful and orderly and that they will have a place in the country after independence. Blacks are entitled to the assurance that the progress to majority rule will be irreversible." One possible formula, endorsed by Washington, would vest general responsibility for the transition in a British "commissioner" and would require all Rhodesian political groups to swear loyalty to the Crown. Richard and his plan received a chilly reception in Rhodesia. When his party landed in Salisbury, it was ignored by Rhodesian Foreign Affairs Minister Pieter K. van der Byl, who also happened to be at the airport. In the capital, the attitude of whites toward the visitors was equally hostile. After police arrested a man for carrying a vial of acid, he boasted that he had planned to toss it into Richard's face.

Even before the British envoy arrived, Smith had rejected any British role in Rhodesia as "inappropriate" and "unrealistic." Smith has consistently argued that the deal he made with Kissinger is not negotiable. That bargain, according to the Prime Minister, calls for majority rule within two years, but during the transition period the government posts responsible for defense and law-and-order will remain in white hands. The Kissinger formula, claims Smith, says nothing about a role for the British, who have never recognized Rhodesia's 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence. During his tense, two-hour talk with Richard, Smith accused Britain of selling out the whites. A second meeting, planned for the following day, was canceled, and Richard bleakly described the conversation as a "frank and vigorous exchange of views"--dip-lomatese for failure.

Moral Leverage. Rhodesia's black nationalists are also opposed to any British presence. "Recolonization by Britain," is how Guerrilla Leader Mugabe describes it. Joshua Nkomo, head of one wing of the African National Council (A.N.C.), is prepared to accept a token British presence, but only if it takes orders from a black-dominated transition government.

Still smarting from his frigid reception by whites in Salisbury, Richard headed for Oubos, on South Africa's craggy Indian Ocean coast, to meet South Africa's vacationing Prime Minister John Vorster. Richard wanted Vorster to use Pretoria's powerful economic, political and moral leverage with the white Rhodesians to nudge Smith toward some compromise. But after four hours of talks in the living room of Vorster's cottage, Richard left emptyhanded. The South African leader apparently was not yet willing to lean on Smith to accept terms that the Rhodesian Prime Minister feels will betray white settlers.

Richard also tried last week to get the leaders of Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Tanzania--which, along with Angola, are the so-called front-line states--to convince Rhodesian black nationalists that they should compromise and accept a British presence during the transition. Mozambique's Marxist President, Samora Machel, hitherto a hard-line advocate of armed struggle, and host to the largest body of guerrillas, surprisingly promised Richard "all the necessary cooperation for the right solution" and did not reject the idea of a British bridging presence. Even more encouraging for Richard was his meeting with Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, who endorsed a British role in the transition period. Richard later exclaimed that he had "run short of adjectives" to describe how well his talks had gone with the Tanzanian leader. Machel, Nyerere and Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda planned to meet in the Zambian capital of Lusaka at week's end to coordinate their Rhodesian strategy.

"This whole Rhodesian thing is like a yo-yo," mused one State Department analyst. "It's impossible to tell from one day to the next what's going to work."

Richard remains a determined optimist. This week he plans to revisit Rhodesia and South Africa. Said he at a Pretoria press conference: "I am convinced that in the end we will get a settlement to this problem." Other British diplomats are not so buoyant. Complained one last week: "It's a fearful slog. Both sides, black and white, are tossing tantrums and refusing to talk common sense. If Ivor gets anywhere with these adamant chaps he should have a medal."

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