Zambia bars six for 'C.I.A. work’

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 9

Zambia bars six for 'C.I.A. work’

NZPA-Reuter 'Lusaka The Zambian Government has ordered two American diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours and announced the arrest of a Zambian Foreign Ministry official in connection with alleged activities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in Zambia. A Foreign Ministry statement telexed to NZPAReuter from the office of President' Kenneth Kaunda named tne two diplomats as John David Finney, a political affairs first secretary, and Michael Francis O'Brien, public affairs first secretary and director of the United States International Communications Agency in Lusaka.

The statement said that four other Americans, three of them diplomats and one a businessman, who have all left Zambia, had been declared persona non grata for what it alleged were their roles in controlling the Foreign Ministry • official, who was identified as Webster Kayi Lumbwe. Mr Lumbwe was described as an officer in the Ministry’s political section of the African desk.

Among -the four banned Americans "was '■Frederick Boyce Lundahl, an American diplomat was recently expelletT from Mozambique for alleged C.I.A. activities. The statement alleged that, among other things, the C.I.A. has "examined the possibility> of an alternative leadership in the country.” It said a combination of a senior Army officer and Frederick Chiluba, chairman of the Zambian Congress of Trade Unions, "was discussed in C.I.A. quarters.” The statement did not

elaborate but it listed other areas in which it alleged the C.I.A. had shqyvn. interest in Zambia. These included, the presence and deployment of surface-to-air missiles, the purchase of Soviet fighter ‘ planes, and the political beliefs of senior Government and military officials. It said the C.I.A. sought information on the influence President Kaunda's - senior advisers had on him and details of a . Church-State wrangle over . what the Church had alleged was the introduction of "scientific socialism" in schools. The statement said: "Of late. American diplomats have engaged in practices which are not in line with the normal activities of dip-

lomats." It alleged that Mr Lumbwe had been recruited by the C.I.A. in 1978. but had not begun to work actively for the . United States until January, 1979. The ’ statement made no reference to a coup plot foiled by secutrity forces last October which the Government alleged at the time had been backed by South Africa. Thirteen people, including four senior military officers.

... were charged with treason in Mav. They are due to appear in ‘the Lusaka High Court ...soon. The statement said the other banned Americans were Norman Smith, a diplomat who had since left the country. Robert Richard Simpson, a commercialeconomic second secretary who had left Zambia last month, and William Benton Lowethier, who had been working in Lusaka until April 12 for a firm called International Business Promotions.