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INTERIOR MV: Patriotic Front leader Joshua Nkomo makes statement.
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NKOMO: "We are not, the Patriotic Front is not talking in terms of the internal leaders, if there is such a thing as internal leaders, I don't know what is meant really, by internal leaders, because we are leaders of Zimbabwe, we are as internal if not more internal than they are. We are not talking in terms of making what people call internal leaders. We are talking in terms of following the Anglo-American proposals, deal with it as far as the first military section is concerned, which we are dealing with in Dar Es Salaam after the Malta meeting. Then comes the section that deals with the independent constitution of our country. This section, we are prepared to meet anyone...from our country, who believes he leads a political party because the constitution of the country involves those people who believe they lead some political party. If the other men, that is the Reverend Sithole, Bishop Muzorewa, James Chikerema, believe that they lead some party, then they come, not because they are themselves, but because they believe they lead some party. And as far as the situation is now, those men no longer work as separate political parties. They have come to agreement with Ian Smith, they are now part and parcel of the Ian Smith regime. If they are to come to any conference with Britain, as far as we are concerned Smith comes as part and parcel of the British delegation, a sub-delegation if you want, if Britain invites them, then Britain will invite them as a group of people who have come together and formed an illegal regime."




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Background: With indications that Rhodesia's new multiracial interim government could be heading for a major split, pressure has been mounting for Patriotic Front co-leader Joshua Nkomo to abandon his hard-line attitude and join forces with Mr. Smith and other black nationalists inside Rhodesia. But Mr. Nkomo still appears adamant that he does not recognise the new administration, and will not return to Salisbury until his group is in effective control of the country. He says he is agreeable to another British-supervised constitutional conference, but stresses that members of the Salisbury alliance who might attend should not be regarded as genuine leaders of Rhodesia.