Castro told Carter: I tried to stop Shaba rebel attack

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 8

Castro told Carter: I tried to stop Shaba rebel attack

NZPA Washington The Cuban President (Dr Fidel Castro) informed the United States four days after Katangan rebels invaded Zaire that he had had prior knowledge of the attack and had tried to head it off, United States Senate sources have said.

Dr Castro's statement appears to support President Jimmy Carter’s claim that Cuba was aware of the invasion plans, but casts doubt on the American assertion that the Cubans obviously did nothing to prevent the bloody 7 attack on Shaba province. Sources, who asked not to be named, said that Dr Castro made his comments to Lyle F. Lane, the top United States diplomat in Havana, and that the contents of his remarks were relayed to the State Department, by Mr Lane in a secret cable. Senator George McGovern, read a copy of the cable to a closed meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Friday as the d.rector of the Central Intelligence Agency (Admiral Stansfield Turner) was briefing the panel on evidence to support Mr Carter’s claim of Cuban involvement, the sources said. After Senator McGovern read the cable, Admiral Turner confirmed its contents and said it had not been disclosed previously because Carter Administration officials did not believe- that Dr Castro was telling the truth but did not want to call the Cuban leader a liar, the sources added. Another Democrat, Senator Dick Clark, chairman of the Senate foreign relations sub-committee on Africa, referred to the cable in a telephone interview. “The thing that I find disturbing is that the President didn’t bring it (the cable)

out and let the Congress and' public decide (on Dr Cas- j tro’s truthfulness),” he said. , The sources said that Dr' Castro told Mr Lane that he! learned early in April of the ; impending invasion by Ang-ola-based Katangan rebels; into their former homeland, now known as Shaba prov- i ince. Dr Castro claimed he im-; mediately approached the Angolan President (Dr Agostinho Neto) in an effort to prevent the invasion, but failed to block the attack partly because Dr Neto was ill and staying in the Soviet Union, the sources said. The Katangans invaded Shaba province on May 13, capturing the copper-mining city of Kolwezi and killing hundreds of black and white civilians.

The rebels were eventually: dislodged from Kolwezi and driven back into Angola by; a combined force of French, Belgian, and Zairean troops who received American logistical support. On May 25 — one week after Dr Castro met with MiLane — Mr Carter denounced Cuban involvement j with the attack. “We believe that Cuba had known of the Katangan plan to invade and obviously i did nothing to restrain them , from crossing the border,”’ the President said. The sources said the Carter Administration had offered other evidence to support its claim that the Cubans were involved although none was described as conclusive. The official Angolan news | agency, Angop, has reported (President Neto as saying I that Angola did not train I nor arm any army nOr organise any expedition against (Zaire. In a statement to the (nation, the President said: I “Our Soviet and Cuban (allies did not intervene in (any way in Angola to pro(voke the rebellion.” I In an apparent reference (to white hostages said to have been taken to Angola by the retreating rebels, Dr : Neto said that Belgian, : French, and other civilians who had travelled via Angola on the way to their own countries had been given formal protection. President Mobutu Sese Seko has said i that some 60 white hostages were killed in the bush.