Terrorism looms as grim reality

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34048, 12 January 1976, Page 13

Terrorism looms as grim reality

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, January 11.

Jungle camouflage, uniforms, and ominouslooking plastic automatic rifles are big sellers in South Africa’s toy stores.

White youngsters playing terrorist are common sights under trees and on the neatly manicured lawns of Johannesburg’s affluent suburbs.

But w’hat is still a game for children has become a grim reality for South Africa’s four million whites who keep a wary eye on developments in war-torn Angola.

The great fear is that the war could spread, engulfing most of southern Africa in a racial conflagration. The huge influx of Soviet arms into Angola, and Cuban troops supporting the Marxist Popular Movement in Angola’s civil war, have created a sense of alarm in Africa’s largest and most powerful bastion of white minority rule.

The Government fears a Marxist government in Angola would threaten Western shipping lanes round the Cape of Good Hope and lead to communist subversion throughout southern Africa. The most terrifying prospect for many South Africans is the possibility of a Marxist Angola increasing military support to Africa guerrillas fighting in South Africancontrolled South-West Africa. There are even fears in some quarters of guerrilla activity in South Africa itself. A New Year hoax, in which four Africans stylishly dressed in camouflage uniforms set off firecrackers near Magaliesburg, northwest of Johannesburg, sparked a search by more than 100 armed police looking for what was reported to be a gang of terrorists. The police reaction to the false report underlines the tense atmosphere that prevails despite South Africa’s extensive military power.

At least 25 South Africans have been killed in the operational area across the Angola border, and since last November, according to con-

servative estimates, more than 100 have been wounded.

The degree of South African involvement in Angola’s civil war is unclear but informed sources estimate that at least 2500 troops are in the former Portuguese territory providing logistical support to the National Union (U.N.1.T.A.) and National Front (F.N.L.A.) movements against the Soviet and Cuban-backed Popular Movement (M.P.L.A.).

The South African Government, however, has never publicly acknowledged a combat role in Angola. Officially, it insists it is only protecting the multimillion dollar hydro-electric and irrigation scheme funded by South Africa on the Cunene River just north of the South-West Africa border.

Yet the Popular Movement says at least seven South African soldiers have been captured deep inside Angolan territory along the southern front near Gabela and Quibala. South Africa’s newspapers, hampered by military [censorship, complain bitterly

about the Government’s refusal to give details regarding South Africa’s involvement.

The distraught father of a 19-year-old youth killed in action in the border area recently appealed to military authorities to give more information about the deaths of next-of-kin. "We do not want information that could assist the enemy, or anything regarded as a military secret, but parents should not have to learn in a roundabout way the cause of death,” he said. As one mother, whose son faces call-up to join forces on the border, put it: “It is one thing to defend our border and it is another thing to be fighting in another country. I want to know where'my son is and what he is doing and why.”

Those sentiments are echoed by Mr Colin Eglin, leader of the Opposition Progressive Reform Party. “Protecting our borders is one thing. The possibility of becoming embroiled in a civil war between the rival groups in a foreign state is another,” he says.

Newspapers, radio, and television have given wide publicity to the border deaths. Photographs of South African prisoners of war paraded in the M.P.L.A.controlled capital of Luanda have been widely published. Also worrying white South Africans are the growing number of incursions into South-West Africa by guerrillas of the South-West Africa People Organisation (5.W.A.P.0.). The State-supported radio and Government officials have repeatedly called for increased Western involvement in the Angolan civil war to halt the threat of a communist takeover. But anti-Govemment newspapers have demanded a withdrawal of all South African troops inside Angola, maintaining that South Africa should take up a defensive posture. "We are rapidly being steered into an untenable position,” commented the “Rand Daily Mail.” It added that South Africa has become a scapegoat for whatever happens in Angola.

“These are dangerous liabilities for a nation as embattled as we are and we suggest that our best course of action would be to withdraw,” it said. South Africa has warned Western nations that it has no intention .of fighting for Western interests in Angola to the lest South African. And South African authorities have noted the negative impact its Angolan involvement has made on some black African states. On the other hand, some African states, including Zaire, Zambia and Botswana, privately support South Africa’s incursions into Angola because they fear a revolutionary government in Angola might lead to subversion in their countries. Some political observers believe that South Africa is now weighing the pros and cons of a withdrawal but it is unlikely the Government will permit a defeat of National Union forces in southern Angola—which could serve as a buffer zone—without a fight