President Samora Machel of Mozambique said in his capital, Maputo on Friday (26 March) that the presidents of Zambia. Mozambique, Botswana and Tanzania had decided to give complete support to armed struggle by black Rhodesian nationalists, at their summit conference earlier in the week.

Speaking at a news conference, the president said the summit conference in Lusaka had been "very positive". He said it established a common strategy for the present phase, whose aim was to accelerate the fall of Ian Smith, and to give total support to the armed struggle in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). President Machel said they were unanimous on those two points.

He said Britain should negotiate with the black nationalists and described the recent British proposals as a positive statement but said they must be analysed. He added it would take much too long for Ian Smith to transfer power to the majority, and this transfer must be immediate.

President Machel said the four presidents favoured a people's war which would liberate the Rhodesian masses from a "superiority complex of the whites and inferiority complex of the blacks.". He said a war would also allow the creation of liberated zones which would give the blacks experience in government. The president added that a war would help to mentally decolonise the whites and destroy the myth of black inferiority for them.

Asked about western fears of Russians or Cubans landing in Mozambican ports under the pretext of helping the blacks in Rhodesia, President Machel said, "Why will the Russians take advantage. Why the Russians and not the Americans or British?" He refused to answer questions about whether he would allow the Cubans into Mozambique ports if the Zimbabwean guerillas asked for their help.