S.A. shows off captured arms

Press, 3 February 1981, Page 8

S.A. shows off captured arms

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg The South African Deferce Force yesterday showed the press Soviet-made arms aid ammunition which it said were seized in a raid into neighbouring Mozambiqih against black nationalise guerrillas. \ The weapons rocket launchere, machine guns, plastic explosives, hand grenades. A Defence Force spokesman, Kobus Bosman, said the haul also included limpet mines similar to those used last year to blow up fuel tanks at South Africa’s oil-from-coal installations. South African commandos made a lightning attack last Thursday night on alleged command centres of the African National Congress in the Mozambique capital - of Maputo. In Lusaka, Zambia, the A.N.C. . condemned the raid as “a criminal act of bandit-

ryin Salisbury, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (Mr Robert Mugabe) has used his toughest language’ towards South Africa for many months, in condemning the raid.

However, the Zimbabwe leader stopped short of threatening reprisals against his powerful, white-ruled southern neighbour, which straddles the key trade routes of several black African States, including his own.

Last jear Mr Mugabe broke ofi diplomatic relations and ! sporting ties that y"? existed between the former Rhodesia ajd South Africa, k';?. But, giwn the complex ’ economic between the two countries, he has been i forced to maintain formal trade relations. -- ; ! i In a message to President ‘Samora Macliel of Mozambique made public yesterday, S jdr. Mugabe said of the raid: (These wanton acts of mur- ■.. and aggression by the qaggarts of the Pretoria regme will not deter Africa fbm its sacred duty to -■’* aaist the peoples of Azania .. ■- (S\uth Africa) and Namibia t (Sbth-West Africa) to attail their own freedom and ; indbendence.” . Tfe raid into Mozambique -X ? seen) certain to increase ? prepare on “front-line”. blaclqAfrican States border- '' ing Suth Africa to endorse sterne measures against Pretorto- . . • Morijver, Salisbury and Maputo, have a mutual security Agreement, and Mr Mugabej Government is pledged) to support the A.N.C. iiits struggle against white sbremacy in South Africa, V But Mineral exports underpinmg the economies of Zimbawe and several :i: other blai African. States are exporfd through South L Africa, wliph also handles crucial imprts.