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| Ex-Rhodesia leader Ian Smith dies | Ex-Rhodesia leader Ian Smith dies |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| The former prime minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, has died aged 88. | |
| The cause of his death is unknown but he had been ill for some time at a residential home in South Africa. | |
| He illegally declared independence from Britain in 1965 and his white minority government led the country for 14 years amid international scorn and sanctions. | |
| Following a bitter bush war with black nationalists, his government was overthrown by Robert Mugabe in 1979, leading to the creation of Zimbabwe. | |
| Speaking to the BBC in 1998 about his assumption of power, Mr Smith was adamant it was justified. | |
| "There was good reason for what we did. We set up a committee of top civil servants and ministers on three different occasions to look at this and every time they came back and said we had no option. | |
| "Had we not resorted to this the country would have degenerated into chaos and confusion," he said. | |
| Years of civil war followed the declaration of independence. Mr Smith denied this was caused by the actions of his regime. | |
| "The civil war was caused by people who left our country and were brainwashed in Russia, in China. | |
| "They were power hungry people who wanted to take their country over immediately and were not prepared to wait for the evolutionary process." |