MIDDLE EAST AFRICA SOUTH ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A000800250001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 25, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

Approved For Release 2001/08/08 : CIA-RDP79T00865A000800250001-7
Secret
No Foreign Dissem
uL;:\LETE @IIrEE
Middle East
Africa
South Asia
Secret
135
No. 0661/75
April 25, 1975
Approved For Release 2001/08/08 : CIA-RDP79T00865A000800250001-7
 Approved For Release 2001/08/08 : CIA-RDP79T00865A000800250001-7
No Foreign Dissem
Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classified by 005827
Exempt from general declassification schedule
of E. 0. 11652, exemption category:
y 5B (1), (2), and (3)
Automatically declassified
on: Date Impossible to Determine
Approved For Release 2001/08/08 : CIA-RDP79T00865A000800250001-7
 E&W P79T00865A000800250001-7
Approved For Release 2001/08SLQB
This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the Middle East - Africa Division, Office of Current Intelligence,
with occasional contributions from other offices within the Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed to
the authors of the individual articles.
Rhodesia: White Farmers Probe for ANC
Policies on Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Apr 25, 1975
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White Farmers Probe for ANC Policies on Land
Two white Rhodesian farmers visited Zambia in
early April and apparently asked President Kaunda
for some assurance that black Rhodesian nationalists
would not expropriate white farms in the event the
black majority gains political power. The approach
to Kaunda suggests new flexibility among at least
some of the white farmers,,the mainstay of Prime
Minister Ian Smith's ruling Rhodesian Front Party.
The white farmers have adamantly opposed a negotiated
transition to majority rule.
25X1 C
two white members ot the Rhodesian Farmers' Union
told Kaunda on April 8 that the leadership of the
union was prepared to switch support from the Rhodesian
Front to the African National Council--the umbrella
black nationalist organization--in return for a
guarantee that the council, once in power, would
permit white farmers to retain enough land for a
livelihood. Kaunda reportedly relayed the white
farmers' offer to Bishop Muzorewa and other leaders
of the council who met Kaunda on their way home from
the African foreign ministers' meeting in Dares Salaam.
Muzorewa reportedly said that he would bring the matter
up when the council's executive meets in late April,
and that the executive would formulate a land policy
that might reassure the white farmers.
One of the white Rhodesians who met with Kaunda
told journalists after he returned home that Kaunda
had implied the leadership of the council might accept
a gradual transition to majority rule. Kaunda had
also said, however, that a commitment to the principle
of majority rule was a prerequisite for a negotiated
settlement. The white Rhodesian also told reporters
in Salisbury that the confidential report of his meeting
(Continued)
Apr 25, 1975
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with Kaunda--intended for leading white Rhodesians--
recommends acceptance of a gradual transition to
majority rule. The white Rhodesian claimed that
some 70 percent of the "farming leadership"--
apparently the white officials of the Rhodesian
Farmers'Union--were prepared to accept such a
commitment to majority rule.
We question whether such a large number of
white Rhodesian farmers will openly call for even
a gradual transition to majority rule, or that
significant numberswill ever desert the Rhodesian
Front for the African National Council. Some
farmers, however, may be coming around to accept
a negotiated settlement that may eventually result
in majority rule. They may regard this as a lesser
evil than facing the prospect of a resurgence of
guerrilla warfare without further support from South
Africa, which reportedly plans to withdraw its police
from Rhodesia by the end of May. A few days before
the two farmers met with Kaunda, Smith acknowledged
that pressure from Pretoria had induced him to release
from detention temporarily Ndabaningi Sithole, a
nationalist leader who had brought his group into
the African National Council under pressure from
Kaunda and other African mediators. (SECRET/NO FOREIGN
DISSEM)
Apr 25, 1975
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