Decision Time

Will Smith vote for peace?

Even if he wins his fourth election this week, Ian Smith's days in office may be numbered. The Rhodesian Prime Minister is under mounting pressure to give up his impossible dream of perpetuating white minority rule in Salisbury and to avert further bloodshed by acceding to a new U.S.-British peace proposal. The initiative is aimed at ending the five-year-old guerrilla war with nationalist forces and paving the way for black majority rule.

The U.S.'s United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young and British Foreign Secretary David Owen flew into Zambia late last week to begin a selling job on the peace plan. After a meeting in the capital of Lusaka with representatives of the five front-line states (Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania and Botswana), as well as with Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, leaders of the nationalists' Patriotic Front, Young and Owen were scheduled to continue to Pretoria. The proposals will be presented this week to South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster and Smith himself. The plan provides for:

> a six-month transition period during which Rhodesia, reverting to its legal status as a British colony, would be governed by a London-appointed administrator who would organize a constitutional conference based on the principle of one man, one vote;

> elections at the end of the transition period, at which time the colony would become independent and authority would pass to the newly elected government;

> a U.N. peace-keeping organization that would maintain order and oversee a plan to create a new, mixed Rhodesian force composed of some elements of the present Rhodesian army and the Patriotic Front forces;

> a $1 billion development fund, made up largely of contributions from the U.S. Britain and Saudi Arabia, that would be used to bolster the new government against the flight of white capital and consequent economic ruin.

While the Lusaka conference was going on, Smith flew to Pretoria for talks with Vorster. The two leaders are likely to focus their objections to the U.S.-British proposal on two aspects: first, the plan would require Smith's resignation, and second, it would mean disbanding some units of the Rhodesian army, including the notorious Selous Scouts, and allowing a U.N. peace-keeping force to come in. Young, for his part, professes optimism that Smith will realize that "Rhodesian whites cannot win" and thus take the peace proposal seriously. At the same time, Young says he discerns among black nationalist leaders a "sense of urgency and a willingness to cut short the armed struggle somewhere short of marching into Salisbury."

Washington and London intend to give all the parties concerned at least a month to decide whether or not the plan is acceptable to them. Meanwhile, even many white Rhodesians were questioning the need for a general election in their country at this time. The Rhodesia Herald lamented in an editorial last week: "Wouldn't it be nice if someone told us what we are voting for?" Aiming to head off an imposed U.S.-British settlement, Smith called the surprise election in July, hoping that a new mandate would enable him to push through some kind of compromise with either of two "accepted" black leaders: the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole or Bishop Abel Muzorewa.

But few Rhodesians, white or black, have any idea what Smith means by his vague talk of "internal settlements," "broad-based governments," and a "desire" to bring blacks into the decision-making process. Says a white Salisbury plumber who always voted for Smith in the past: "All we have ever had from him are promises, so me and my mates have decided we've had enough. There is no one to replace Smith, so we are not voting. I'm thinking of emigrating."

Smith is not expected to run into any real trouble in capturing a majority. Despite the general apathy, the polls gave his Rhodesian Front party 61% of the vote, compared with less than 4% for the far-right Rhodesian Action Party. Whether Smith's likely victory will prove to be a new lease on power or only a last gasp remains to be seen. But barring a stunning surprise, of which he is certainly capable, Smith was expected to turn humbs down on the U.S.-British proposal --thus buying a little more time, if not a solution.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.