adminThe Herald 22 December 1979
IT was a day of champagne, smiles and handshakes as the leading opponents in the seven-year-old Rhodesian war turned to the pen rather than swords to mark a milestone in history.
At noon yesterday, in the ornate 37-metre Grand Gallery in the historic Lancaster House building, 17 weeks of political wrangling came to an end.
The agreement to end the war and establish an independent Zimbabwe ruled by a black government was formally signed.
British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher, wearing a violet outfit, witnessed her Government’s diplomatic triumph. The aquamarine-coloured leather-covered copies of the agreement were decorated with gilt illumination and the Royal crest. The British team were first to sign with special silver, fibre-tipped pens that each signatory will carry away as a souvenir.
The agreement folders were moved down the line of signatories in a clockwise direction by Foreign Office aides. The outgoing Prime Minister, Bishop Muzorewa, mumbled several times: “Beautiful, beautiful.”
The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, at the centre of the table, opened the proceedings. “From midnight tonight, the first phase of the ceasefire will come into operation,” he said. But the moment for which the people of Rhodesia have been waiting for will come at midnight on Friday December 28, Lord Carrington said.
That was when all hostilities had to cease and disengagement and assembly process would start. This will be completed by midnight on January 4.
Lord Carrington hailed the agreement as an achievement of vital importance for the whole of Southern Africa. “If, as a result of a negotiated settlement, wounds so deep can be healed in Rhodesia, then the people of that country will have set an example and given hope to others throughout the world,” he said.
But the Foreign Secretary said a difficult period lay ahead, and he warned Bishop Muzorewa and the PF leaders, Mr Joshua Nkomo and Mr Robert Mugabe: “having committed themselves to campaign peacefully and to comply with the ceasefire agreement, no party or group could expect to take part in elections if it continued the war or systematically to break the ceasefire and to practise widespread intimidation.”
Lord Carrington repeatedly stressed that the delegations had signed “solemn and binding” agreements, and said it was now up to the Governor in Salisbury, Lord Soames, to see that parties acted in accordance with these commitments.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Today marks 42 years since the Lancaster House Agreement was signed in the British capital, London.
The Lancaster House Agreement was signed on December 21, 1979, declearing a ceasefire between the warring in the Rhodesian war.
The Agreement led to the dissolution of the unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
It also came into being, after a series of negotiations between nationalist parties and the Rhodesian Front. The agreement was facilitated by the British and American governments.
So many classified documents need to be declassified so that history is not distorted on the altar of expediency.
Online Reporter