GAIA

Students protesting Kissinger’s African tour.

lrish bishop jailed
ten years in Rhodesia

Under the pressure of an armed
struggle for liberation and the
condemnation of world public
opinion, racist Ian Smith has
intensified repression in Rhodesia
sentencing Catholic Bishop
Donal Lamont to ten years in
prison for challenging white
supremacy.

Lamont had been charged with
the failure to report the presence
of freedom fighters in his locality
and for advising nuns that they
should not report the liberation
soldiers who were seeking food
and shelter.

The Bishop, who recently pub-
lished an open letter to Smith
charging that Smith’s policies
were ‘‘racist and oppressive’,
told the court that, ‘‘I, like many
of my colleagues, cannot recon-
cile my Christian principles with
the racist legislation in Rhodesi-
> Oia 3

Statements from religious
spokesmen around the world, in-
cluding the Pope, indicated wide
spread support for the principled
position of the incarcerated
Bishop. The Vatican termed the
sentence a contravention of jus-
tice and humanity. The Pope was
quoted as saying that the Bishop
was guilty only of defending the
ideals of humanity, equality and
brotherhood in a country where
the majority black population: is
still ‘‘subject to discrimination by
the white’’.

Lamont has indicated that he
will appeal the sentence.

The sentencing of the Catholic

- Bishop follows quick on the heels

of the publishing of an authorita-
tive indictment of racist brutality
and torture in Rhodesia. The in-
dictment is contained in a report
of the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace in Rhodesia re-
leased last week in London.
Lamont chaired the commission.

Detailed evidence in the report
accuses Smith’s security forces of
large scale abduction, torture and
killing of black civilians. The re-
port documents torture methods
which include punching, kicking,
beating with belts, whipping,
electric shock to the genitals, and
water torture.

The Catholic Commission re-
ported on the long and unsuccess-
ful efforts to secure an inquiry
into the massacre at the village of
Karima in Rhodesia. On June 12,
1975 security forces opened fire

‘on the village killing 20 and injur-

ing 15 others. Of those dead, 9
were children and 4 women.
The report says that the*Smith
regime justifies its actions by
labelling its victims‘ ‘terrorists’.

“But it is common knowledge,’’
the report replies, ‘‘that the many
hundred who invade this country
are citizens of this country, that
they are fighting for the right of
self-determination for their fellow
blacks and for a share in the
wealth which will enable them to
live their lives in conditions of
basic physical health and social
decency.”

The report is being distributed
by the Catholic Institute for In-
ternational Relations and is called
“Civil War i in Rhodesia.”’

BISHOP LAMONT

YOUTH JOBLESS

WASHINGTON — Almost 1.8
million young people between
the wages of 16 and 19 yéars
were unemployed in the United
States in August, according to
the U.S. Department of Labor
figures. This is 19.7% of the
youth labor force.

Nkomo rejects plan outright:

No power sharing in Zimbabwe

While. Ian Smith continues
meeting with U.S. and British
politicians to find new ways of cl-
inging to power, the leaders of
Zimbabwe’s (Rhodesia) libera-
tion movement have made it clear
that if a conference takes place to
begin the transition to majority
rule the liberation movement it-
self will determine the contents of
the conference and the future of
Zimbabwe.

Joshua Nkomo, president of
the African National Council of
Zimbabwe, last week dismissed
out of hand the so called ‘‘Kis-
singer Plan’’ for a transition gov-
ernment to majority rule. Nkomo
said that any plan for Smith’s
State Council to have responsibil-
ity for formulating a new constitu-
tion, as with any plan that in-
cluded U.S. involvement, would
be unacceptable. ‘‘The creation
of a constitution is ours now,”’ he
said, ‘‘not the Americans.”’

The stand of the ANC is backed
by the leaders of the surrounding
independent African countries.
They have called for a conference
to be held outside Rhodesian bor-
ders which would establish an in-
terim government through a
transition period to majority rule
of only four to six weeks. Neither

the U.S. or the Smith government.

should even be involved in such a
conference, they say, because

neither have any moral or legal

right to participate in a free Zim-
babwe.

The proposal that the confer-
ence be convened by Britain
flows from the fact that under

' existing international law, Britain
is responsibile for Rhodesia. The

Smith government is in fact an il-
legal government having usurped
power through a unilateral decla-
ration in 1965 to avoid the grant-
ing of independence and majority
tule ‘which was about to take
place. Not a single government in
the world recognizes the Smith
regime as.a legitimate, local gov-
ernment.

The position of the indepen-
dent African states was expressed
well last week by the prime minis-
ter of Angola, Lopo Do Nas-
cimento who called Kissinger’s
proposals ‘‘nothing more than the
reply of imperialism to its over-
throw in Angola.’’ Nascimento
said the plan ‘‘is aimed at creating
a neo-colonialist regime and

Social Democrats win
narrow margin in FRG

The Social Democratic gov-
ernment of Helmut Schmidt
squeaked back into power in the
Federal Republic of Germany fol-
lowing last week’s election where
the coalition of Democratic and
Free Democratic parties won
50.5% of the vote.

Right wing forces made sub-
stantial gains in the elections and

‘reduced the social democratic

vote by 4%. The strong right wing
challenge from the Christian
Democratic Unicn and the Christ-
ian Social Union is seen as part of
a general right trend in Europe
that is filling a void created by
disenchantment with right social
democracy.

Soviet news media commented
on the German election that it re-
vealed the continuing struggle be-
tween supporters of détente and
its opponents. The right wing had
made relations with the Soviet

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 15, 1976—Page 8

Union a major issue in the cam-
paign. The victory, narrow as it
was, Soviet commentators added
was a mandate for Schmidt to
continue and to deepen the pro-
cess of détente.

The German Communist Party
ran candidates in all of the 248
constituencies. In spite of the full
slate of candidates, the Party was
blacked out in the German media,
receiving 10 minutes of television
time as compared to 2,500 mi-
nutes allotted to the old line
parties.

The Communist Party cam-
paign also zeroed in on the key
issue of the process to détente and

’ warned as GCP chairman Herbert

Mies said, ‘against the attempts
to put back the clock by anti-
communists who attempt to at-
tack the agreements with the
GDR.”’

creating a buffer zone for South
Africa.”’

Nkomo and the ANC have said
that they will attend a conference
but that the armed struggle con-
tinue until real freedom. is
achieved. ‘Majority rule, to the
people of Zimbabwe, does not
mean simply a black majority in
parliament,’’ the London
spokesman for the ANC, Naison
Kiswana said last week, ‘‘We

want majority rule and state pow-
er.’’ The armed forces, police and
civil service are crucial to major-
ity rule, Kiswana said, and that
Smith’s army ‘‘must be disman-
tled’’. In any settlement he went

on, the Zimbabwe liberation army
would have to be included as the

legitimate armed force in the

country.

Inside Zimbabwe, Nkomo’s
tough stance has been echoed by
other leaders of the liberation
movement. A statement from the
Zimbabwe Peoples Army (ZIPA)
last week said, ‘‘under no cir-
cumstances are we prepared to
share power with racists and fas-
cists ... We are determined to
wage a resolute armed struggle
until final victory.”

The western press and U.S.
controlled news wire services
have been working overtime to
present a picture of division inside
Zimbabwe with ‘‘rival factions”’
vying for leadership. There is, in
fact, only one liberation move-
ment in Zimbabwe, the ANC.
The ANC was formed in 1975

‘wing of the ANC, one headed by

through the merging of the major
liberation organizations, each of
whom dissolved themselves into
the new organization. The
People’s Army or ZIPA, although
with its own independent struc-
ture, works in close unity with the
‘ANC and is inseparable from it.|

Another distortion presented in
the Western media is that there is
an ‘‘external’’ and ‘‘internal”

Nkomo and the other by Bishop
Muzorewa whose return to Zim-
babwe this week was widely pub-
licized. In fact, Muzorewa is a
former leader of the ANC who}
lost pis Eraeen of leadership

when he left the county While
Muzorewa was in neighboring Af
rican countries the liberataa
movement in Zimbabwe met
convention and elected Nkomoll )
president of the ANC. Muzore.
wa, while being a popular figure in
the country, leads no organiza.
tion. Reports from Zimbabwe i
dicate that Nkomo_ and
Muzorewa were meeting to integ.
rate Muzorewa back into the
ANC.

In any case democratic gov.)
ernment in Zimbabwe would soon,
determine the popular support of
people’s leaders. It is exactly that)
which Smith and the USA want to
prevent. However as each at
tempt to compromise Zim.
babwe’s freedom is rejected,
Smith’s number looms larger. By
a constitutional conference or by
armed struggle, Zimbabwe will
enjoy majority rule soon. ;

r

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