Portugal's Warfare In Africa

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 21

Portugal's Warfare In Africa

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright)

LISBON, Dec. 20.

Portugal is nearing the end of the most bloody year of warfare in its African territories of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea.

Anti-Portuguese rebels, some armed with modern (Soviet and Chinese weapons, (had been content with keeping Portugal’s 100,000 troops on the defensive for the first part of 1966. But a sudden upsurge in recent months brought the official total of Portuguese losses to 530 so far this year. Last year 445 soldiers were killed in the steamy territories. In Angola, Portugal’s diamond and iron-rich West African possession, the worst in- [ cident occurred last week, when 25 troops were killed in an ambush set near the Congo border with rebel mortars and machine-guns. Portuguese officials boasted last summer that Angola rebels, led by the Union of

Angola Populations and Movement for the Liberation of Angola, had been subdued. Only 10 of Angola’s 40,000 crack troops had been killed in combat in the first half of the year. The blow of losing 25 men in a single incident led Portugal to seal off the AngolaCongo border and threaten to cut off the Congo’s railroad to the sea—the British-owned Benguela railway. More than 70 per cent of Katanga copper is shipped on the railway. Angola attacks were not merely limited to the north, where the tiny enclave of Cabinda was also in turmoil. A “third front” opened for the first time in September on the border with Zambia, in the Cazombo strip of brush and open country. Here, the rebels have learned to keep in small bands and retreat back across the border, instead of fading into the forest as they do in the north.

The three-pronged attack in Angola has brought total losses to 129 for the year, with 64 men killed in tjmbat.

The Premier, Antonio Salazar, has named a tough 46-year-old lieutenant-colonel

as Governor of the “province,” hoping that his battle experience in the Uige district will equip him to prevent the recurrence of the 1961 bloody massacres. Mozambique, the other large Portuguese territory, has been the most rewarding war for the Frelimo (Liberation Front) backed rebels, headed by Eduardo Mondlane. Frelimo has killed more than 120 soldiers in the Cabo Delgado and Niassa districts. Another 80 Portuguese troops have died of “various causes,” according to statistics.

Portugal claims that the Frelimo rebels are the bestequipped of all, with fresh daily weapon arrivals from China through the Tanzania port of Dar-es-Salaam. However, in November, Portugal claimed to have killed 118 rebels and taken 349 prisoners.

In Portuguese Guinea, sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal on the western bulge of Africa, one of the world’s most obscure battlegrounds pits about 5000 uniformed rebels against 20,000 Portguese troops. Most of the Portuguese troops are based in the main

centres of the swampy, Neth-erlands-size territory. But when a column sets out, rebels are quick to throw a grenade, set a mine, fire a few shots and melt back into the bush. The war has killed 150 Portuguese in combat this year—more than in Angola and Mozambique.

Deaths from all causes hover around 200, like Mozambique. Portuguese Guinea is an economic drain on Portugal, since food and equipment must be imported at high expense.

“But the political significance of losing any part of any territory would be incalculable, and we have to stand firm,” claims a Government official. The war effort in the three “African provinces,” 23 times the size of the motherland, is costing Portugal more than 40 per cent of the national budget, the highest proportion of any N.A.T.O. nation except the United States. But in spite of the expense and the external pressures, Portugal believes its mission is to remain in Africa at any cost, especially since Angola and Mozambique are beginning to show economic benefits.