Ivor Richard: Man in the Middle
Dressed for the part, Ivor Richard, 44, Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations and currently chairman of the Rhodesian conference in Geneva, would make a splendidly old-fashioned John Bull. Burly, ebullient and pipe smoking, the bespectacled barrister is anything but timid—the description Nationalist Leader Joshua Nkomo applied to the British role in the negotiations. That much, at least, was made clear two days before the conference opened when Richard waded into what he called a "good verbal punch-up" with a member of an African nationalist delegation.
Complaining bitterly about Britain's colonial record in Rhodesia, the delegate, Mukudzei Mudzi, exploded: "You just think we are a lot of damned niggers!" Barked back Richard: "You ought to know that word is not in my vocabulary, and you should not seek to put it there. Before we go any further with this meeting, I want you to withdraw that remark." Mudzi backed off, and there were no hard feelings, especially after Richard learned that Mudzi had just been released from prison in Zambia, where he had been held since March 1975 without trial on suspicion of murdering another black leader. "I think it cleared the air," Richard told TIME.
What upset black Rhodesian leaders was that Britain had not seen fit to send Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland to the conference. This omission seemed to confirm their long-held view that Britain, once again, was evading its responsibility for the Rhodesian drama. The African delegates hastened to make clear that their objections were not to Richard personally. Even Robert Mugabe, regarded as the most militant of the delegation leaders, stressed that "the view we hold is by no means an attack on the chairman." Bishop Abel Muzorewa went further, saying, "I think he could become a tremendous chairman." -
Reflected Richard afterward: "The first task I had to achieve was to try to put it over that they could trust me. I think we've got over that hump. I feel that Ian Smith feels exactly the same. If I can get the trust of the parties, then I can perform my real function, which is bridging." It is a function that Richard regards as essential for the success of the conference. "To be frank," he says, "what we'll be talking about around the table in the plenary sessions is less important than what's taking place quietly in my rooms in the Palais des Nations or in my hotel suite."