S.A. warning

Press, 11 July 1983, Page 11

S.A. warning

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg South Africa would raid “terrorist nests” in nearby States but would not directly attack its neighbours, the country’s Defence Minister, General Magnus Malan, said at the week-end. He told a military parade that neighbouring countries need not fear action if they were not engaged “hand in glove with the Russian imperialists and their agents” in subversion against South Africa. “They also have to know that we don't and won’t act directly against them, but only against terrorist nests in their territory and we will continue with this should it be found to be in

the interests of our own country,” he said. General Malan said that South Africa’s neighbours had recently been saying that Pretoria, which had repeatedly warned them not to harbour terrorists, intended attacking them. “It now seems as if those who complain most may be feeling guilty,” he said. South Africa has reacted quickly in the past to attacks on its territory. Three days after a bomb blast in Pretoria killed 20 people and injured more than 200 in May, South African planes blasted alleged bases of the outlawed African National Congress in Mozambique.