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PASTOR'S REPORT, April 23, 1979
Page 17
Several dozen official and unofficial supporters invited to observe tne
election proceedings have almost unanimously declared them to have been
conducted fairly and without coercion on the part of the government.
In fact, what coercion there was occurred in Rhodesia's rural areas where
Patriotic Front intimidation squads
were
successful in keeping some blacks
from the polls. Without the Patriotic Front tactics the turnout would
have been significantly higher.
Messers. Nkomo and Mugabe revealed on last night's "60 Minutes" program
that they will continue to fight regardless of the election. They labeled
Muzorewa and the other candidates as "stooges
II
of "fascism.·
" Questioned
by Dan Rather, Mugabe, definitely the more ideologically radical of the
two, admitted in no uncertain terms that he was an avowed Marxist, who
would do away with capitalism and "white privilege." In other words,
turn Zimbabwe-Rhodesia into another "paradise" such as Mozambique.
The "60 Minutes" program also revealed the cleft between Nkomo and Mugabe,
and that their Patriotic Front is a sham, papering over severe differences.
Nkomo receives significant support from the Soviets whereas Mugabe, whose
forces are the least effective of the two guerrilla armies, gets only
minimal support from the Chinese, who have been retreating from active
military involvement in Africa.
All observers of the Rhodesia scene realize that if the guerrillas were
ever to shoot their way into office, the Patriotic Front would break down
irmnediately with the two forces fighting a civil war -- with everyone else
caught in the middle -- to see which chief emerges number one. Moscow
has its bets all on Nkomo.
Back to the election. The pressure now is squarely on Britain, the United
States and other Western nations to recognize the validity of the election
and to lift the crippling international sanctions against Rhodesia. The
so-called Kissinger Formula adopted in 1976 set free elections and majority
rule as the primary conditions for lifting the embargo.
It remains to be seen whether Britain and the U.S. have the courage to do
so. In Washington there is mounting pressure in Congress to take a posi
tive step, but left-wingers in the State Department apparently remain
adamant. So does Andrew Young, who has a fascination (revealed in a
recent public telecast documentary) with the Patriotic Front leaders,
especially Mr. Mugabe.
One overlooked area of prophetic import which has been in the news
recently is Turkez. Four months of violence, the loss of 1,000 lives,
martial law, and political bombings now threaten to destablize Turkey
and take her out of the Western orbit.
In several ways Turkey may become another Iran. As occurred in that
country, the unrest is coming from leftist student demonstrators, rootless
rural-peasants who have poured into urban slums, and also from small
businessmen and craftsmen who are losing out to ''modernization." Also,
as in Iran, the Islamic "mullahs" remain a potent though underground,
force which a largely secular government has tried to put down.
Also as in the case of Iran, Turkey is strategically important -- perhaps
even more so -- for the monitoring of Soviet military developments by U.S.
intelligence. And, as in Iran, Turkey seems to be catching some of the
fallout from the much-heralded "Islamic revival" now going on throughout
the Middle East.