Smith orders big raid on Zambia

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 8

Smith orders big raid on Zambia

NZPA-Reuter Lusaka Rhodesia has launched an air and ground attack on Zambia and fighting has been continuing for the past 24 (hours, the State-owned : Zambia Radio has said. Quoting a Government spokesman, the radio said that Rhodesian forces using jets, helicopters, and ground troops had crossed into Zambia close to the Mozamjbique border at Luangwa. for[merly Feira, 210 km southjwest of Lusaka. The radio said the Rhodesians crossed the Zambezi ■River at 10 a.m. on Monday land fighting was still going i on. Zambian troops were containing the "unprovoked and indiscriminate attack,” the radio said. It made no mention of casualties. Rumours about the raid began circulating in Rhodesia soon after the attack began. The military command in Salisbury refused to comment on the reports, which said that the incursion was aimed at guerrillas of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union led by Mr Joshua Nkomo. Mr i Nkomo is in New York for I the United Nations .Security Council debate on the “internal” Rhodesian settlement A Zambian presidential (spokesman declined to go (into detail about the attack, (apparently the biggest Rhoi desian raid in recent years on Zambian territory. I The radio said the fighting !was on Zambian soil. i The attack comes after the signing last week of the internal settlement agreement which excluded the Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance led by Mr Nkomo and Mr Robert Mugabe. Western analysts said the unprecented duration of the reported raid appeared to indicate that Mr Smith was embarking on a policy of much harsher confrontation with Zambian-based guerrillas and had abandoned hope of wooing Mr Nkomo back to Salisbury to join the internal settlement. Nationalist sources said that at least one badly wounded Z.A.P.U. guerrilla had been taken to Lusaka for treatment.

In the past, the Rhodesians have concentrated attacks on Mr Mugabe’s rear bases in Mozambique.

But over the last 15 months, Mr Nkomo has built up a growing Soviet-armed and Cuban-assisted force of an estimated 8000 men. Aoanlysts said it appeared Mr Smith had ordered his troops to try to prevent large numbers of these guerrillas from entering Rhodesia. Announcement of the raid will strengthen their case for international rejection of the internal deal because of the powers it allows Mr Smith to retain, the analysts said. Luangwa, then called Feira, was the scene of an earlier Rhodesian bombing raid last August after which Zambia declared a 17-day curfew and black-out.

Since the beginning of this year there have been frequent reports of Rhodesian incursions. The biggest was early last month when the Government in Lusaka denied reports by nationalist sources that over 50 Z.A.P.U. guerrillas had been killed in a Rhodesian raid.