Report

Zambia

“I drew attention in June to the compulsion or temptation – I am not sure which it was – which led Zambian ministers to be the
first to proclaim the failure of existing sanctions against Rhodesia, possibly in order to be able simultaneously to demand
more drastic ones. They undoubtedly felt the compulsion, which most African governments feel, to be in the van of Pan-Africanism,
to appear to be leading the crusade which seems still to have the greatest emotive appeal to Africans. This also had the advantage of depriving their internal opposition of the chance to criticise
them for not doing so, a chance which they would certainly have taken if they could. There was the temptation to believe that
if only others could be stimulated to do more, they themselves would be enabled to take action which might be decisive. They
were also well aware that if the United Nations or Britain could be driven into taking more drastic action, and calling upon
Zambia to participate fully, then they would have’at least some claim on both to be compensated for the losses which-action
against Rhodesia would inflict on Zambia’s economy. “