Internal Settlement

The Internal Settlement was the agreement between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa in 1978.

Negotiations

Fed up with the sanctions leveled against Rhodesia by the International community, plus outright political pressure from South Africa, Great Britain and the United States, the Rhodesian government sat down with its internal moderate black nationalist leaders to thrash out an agreement.

This agreement led directly to the election of 1979, which brought to Bishop Abel Muzorewa and his UANC party to power. The election had been witnessed by international observers, who were all in complete agreement that everything had been free and fair. Muzorewa was set to take over the premiership from Prime Minister Smith on the 1st June 1979.

Zimbabwe-Rhodesia

Once Muzorewa had taken over the new government of national unity, the country was renamed Zimbabwe Rhodesia and a new national flag was raised over Salisbury (now Harare), signifying the transition. It was expected that all sanctions would be lifted, now that the country was under democratically elected black majority rule.

This however, did not lead to the lifting of sanctions as the hard-line parties ZAPU and ZANU were not involved in the political process. The British Government pressured Muzorewa to take part in the Lancaster House Conference in late 1979 in return for international recognition of the country and the lifting of sanctions.

Reaction

The Patriotic Front in Rhodesia, the Carter administration in the United States, and the Organization of African Unity opposed the Internal Settlement. In March the United Nations passed a resolution condemned any settlement under the Smith administration as "illegal and unacceptable.""International Journal". Canadian Institute of International Affairs. Page 311.] Rothchild, Donald S. "Managing Ethnic Conflict in Africa: Pressures and incentives for cooperation", 1997. Page 170]

However, the government of China, which actively supported the Zimbabwe African National Union, showed interest in the settlement, primarily because it feared Russian hegemony in the country.Thomas W. Robinson and David L. Shambaugh. "Chinese Foreign Policy: theory and practice", 1994. Page 296.]

During the Lancaster House negotiations British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Lord Carrington threatened to accept the "second-class solution" of the Internal Settlement if ZANU-PF did not agree to the Lancaster House Agreement.

Further reading

*Catholic Institute for International Relations, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia. "Rhodesia After the Internal Settlement", 1978.

References