Getting Even

ZIMBABWE Getting Even Ian Smith runs into trouble

During Rhodesia's long, bloody civil war, Prime Minister Ian Smith was a staunch defender of a white Rhodesia and imposed draconian measures against black opponents. Now that Rhodesia has become Zimbabwe and blacks govern in the capital of Harare, once Salisbury, Smith, 63, has had reason to ponder some of his past actions: the same emergency powers that he invoked to defend white minority rule are being used against him.

Last week police searched Smith's Harare home looking for "subversive" material. They also ordered him to turn over all the firearms he kept on his 6,000-acre farm 150 miles southwest of the capital. The farm had been the scene of a four-hour search three days earlier.

Smith's problems with the police were only the latest incidents in what he describes as a government campaign of "character assassination and blatant intimidation." When he and supporters from his Republican Front Party gathered for an art exhibition in Harare last month, police took him into custody and released him only after 90 minutes of questioning to determine whether he had violated laws on illegal political gatherings. Smith was also ordered to hand over his passport after he returned from a business trip to the U.S. and Britain.

Smith's troubles apparently stem from comments he made about the government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe during his trip abroad. In an interview with the Washington Times, Smith had charged that since Mugabe, 58, took over almost three years ago, the economy of Zimbabwe has been crumbling. What attracted the most attention back home was Smith's remarks about foreign investment. In the interview, Smith did urge the West to give economic aid to Zimbabwe, but also warned that "there is the danger of the free world falling into the trap of aiding and abetting the establishment of a one-party Marxist dictatorship in a country that should be part of the free world."

Mugabe, who considers himself a Marxist, has made no secret of his long-term aim of turning Zimbabwe into a one-party state, but is too dependent on aid from the West, primarily the U.S. and Britain, to risk a further swing to the left. Given the shrill tone of Smith's comments, many in Harare wondered if the former Prime Minister was not trying to impose conditions on American aid.

The state-controlled television called on the government to detain Smith if it could prove that he had actually urged some Western countries to stop supporting Zimbabwe. The English-language Herald posed the question, "Is this not treason?" Even some of Smith's backers among Zimbabwe's more than 200,000 whites disassociated themselves from his comments.

Smith defended his remarks and claimed that his relations with the government have been strained ever since he told Mugabe in a private meeting 18 months ago that he would openly oppose one-party rule in Zimbabwe. "I'm not looking for trouble," he told TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief Marsh Clark last week. "Surely the greater the violation of human rights, the greater is the need for me to speak out."

It seemed unlikely that Mugabe would have Smith arrested unless ironclad evidence could be found that the white leader was plotting to overthrow the government. Responding to Smith's charges, Mugabe observed: "I don't know whether Smith is qualified to speak about freedom. Those of us who were in detention and tortured cannot say." It was a pointed reminder that under the Smith regime Mugabe had spent ten years in prison.

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