Owen Hopes for Deal

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Zimbabwe safely into the neo-colonial fold.

Last week in Salisbury the signs were that Bishop Muzorewa, the Rev. Sithole and racist Premier Ian Smith were more or less reconciled to each other in spite of recent squabbles.

In Malta there also seemed to be a move towards reconciliation of Nkomo and Mugabe of the Patriotic Front and the imperialist representatives Owen and Andrew Young.

Nomo and Mugabe agreed to support a role for imperialist (British and United Nations) troops in the proposed interim period.

Crucial concession

This is one more long step down the road of collaboration with imperialism which these leaders have been taking.

After the meeting, Mugabe (usually branded more leftwing than Nkomo) said that they had made progress towards an agreement "in which the British and ourselves will lead our country to independence"

The nationalists, he said, would play "a substantial role" and the British "a supervisory role"

In exchange for this crucial concession Owen and Young reportedly agreed to replacing their proposed interim military dictator (Field Marshall Lord Carver) by a broader dictatorial "governing council" on which the Patriotic Front would be represented.

Owen's problem is now to bring the Salisbury and Malta compromises together and he is using all the tricks of secret diplomacy to bring that about.

The Sunday Times reports that he used his friends in the racist South African government to transmit the documents discussed in Malta to the "internal settlement" negotiators.

No doubt if all this treacherous, cunning and unprincipled attempt to scuttle the interests of the black masses of Zimbabwe get anywhere they will win Owen a reputation as a "bold and wise statesman"

But their chances of getting anywhere still constantly clash with the fact that the interests of the black masses and those of imperialism in Southern Africa are irreconcilable.

To build a stable neocolonial settlement in those conditions is like building a sandcastle when the tide is coming in.

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tary David Owen is the key figure in imperial- ism's efforts to bring