International U.S. ships sail into Indian Ocean as crisis deepens

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 9

International U.S. ships sail into Indian Ocean as crisis deepens

NZPA-Reuter

Washington

A four-ship United States Navy force, headed by the guided-missile cruiser Fox, has entered the Indian Ocean in a “show the flag” voyage amid a deepening crisis in the Horn of Africa, the United States Defence Department has said.

rhe Pentagon said thei voyage of the Fox, the frig-1 ates Stein and Ouellet, and) the oiler Hassayampa was a[ "‘routine deployment in keep-i ing with our policy of con- i ducting naval operations ini international waters.” It I made no mention of the war between Ethiopia and I Somalia, which has drawn i Cuban and Russian military! support to the Ethiopians. ' The United States Navy group entered the Indian Ocean from the western Pacific on Monday and is still far from the crisis scene. The Pentagon said the Navy ships would make port calls, but did not say where. In the past, United States Navy vessels have called in Kenya and Iran. The cruiser-led Navy force will be conducting training operations, including underway replenishment and communications exercises, the Pentagon said. This is the sixteenth deployment of United States naval forces into the Indian Ocean since early 1972 at the

(time of the Indo-Pakistan war. The most recent United [ States Navy voyage in the I Indian Ocean occurred be- [ tween last October and [December when the carrier Midway and five other ves--1 seis cruised those waters. ’! Meanw'hile, three United I States destroyers remain in [the Red Sea-Aden Gulf area lor at Bahrein in the Persian Gulf. I The Russian Naw nori i mally maintains 20 or more [ships in the Indian Ocean [ area and recently has concentrated its vessels in the ■ Red Sea and the Gulf of : Aden. Among other things, Rusi sian amphibious landing i ships are reported by United States intelligence to have ■ been used to shuttle military ; supplies from Aden to ■ Ethiopia. Russian transport - planes are said to have uni loaded war supplies in Aden. I President Carter has pro- - [ posed neutralising the Indian ;. Ocean area, but so far there II has been no agreement with “the Russians.

Ethiopia is at present fighting two wars: one against insurgents in its north-western province of Eritrea and another full-scale affair against Somalians in its eastern Ogaden Desert. Russians have sent huge supplies of military equipment and some advisers and the Cubans have been sent some 5000 advisers, according to American State Department estimates, to help the Addis Ababa Government. The United States has refused to help Somalia and has called on the Soviets to halt its shipments to Ethiopia so that the war can be brought to an end by negotiations. If the Ethiopians were to over-run Somalia, at least as far as the big naval base the Russians had at Berbera until they were thrown out last year, it would give Russianbacked countries control of the Gulf of Aden, at the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal from the Indian Ocean.