GULF'S DEPOT TARGETED, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300027-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: May 29, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
y Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300027-2
ARTICLE 0PPRkRED
01 PAGE -o
WASHINGTON POST
29 May 1985
Gulf's Depot
largeted, Says
So~th African.
is
.Captive in Angola
Rebuts Officials
By Patrick Reyna
Associated Press
-_.Foreign Minister. R.F. Botha of
South; Africa said after Angola an-
nounced du Toit's capture last
Tuesday that the soldiers were
looking for .members of the South-
West-Africa People's Organization
and the African National Congress.
: Asked whether Botha's claim was
--correct, Du Toit replied: "No. We
-were- not looking for ANC or
SWAPO, we were attacking Gulf
Oil. But by that action we hoped to
reduce-'Angolan government aid to
is those groups."
The oil-rich northern province is
about, 1,200 miles north of the bor-
der-between Angola and South-
LUANDA, Angola, May 28-A is west Africa, also called Namibia.
i South African commando tPaulino' Pinto Joao, Angola's in-
captured
n o an troo s said toda he an formation: minister, said destruction
his men were sent to blow up a Gulf . of the _Malongo depot would have
.Oil storage depot in northern An- , cost Angola "$30 million worth of
crude oil, $200 million in equipment
go a, not to gather intelligence as
his government said. iand another $250 million in lost
Two other soldiers were killed production during reconstruction."
and Winan Petrus du Toit was He .said Angolan authorities are
wounded and captured. He said Preparing for negotiations with Gulf
1-they were part of a larger. force, for a. five-year renewal of the con-
.
which:he commanded, that broke up have,bee hurt interests "would also
into small groups.: Sparks added from Johannesburg.?
[Earlier, in Johannesburg, South
:African 'Defense Minister Magnus _ = Malin denied that the troops'
Malan told Parliament that the sol- _ presence in Angola constituted a
Biers pected were on guerrilla their base, and way he to a sus- warned ''; lnolatin of the. Lusaka Agreement
Hon . disengagement, claiming that
. irlealt with a defined area of
that the captured du Toit could be only wi
-southern th
;-expected to make a possibly damag ; Milan said South Africa had been
Wing statement, special correspondent I-aware for some time that guerrillas
Allister Sparks reported.]. --of the AN and SWAPO were
Du ;.Tort said at a news confer- ' ou in in northern Angola. "An
ence that South African special forces began planning the-raid into _2perat1on.xo collect intelligence and
the northern province in January, to in point mte igence bases can-
rwNe
-with the object of creating "consid- -_notr, a equa. wrt an at c op-
-erable economic setback to the An-
golan government."
He said he and his men were sent'
-to place mines at the oil depot "with
the aim of destroying the storage
tanks at Cabinda Gulf."
Angola's : Marxist government
gets 90 percent of its foreign ex-
change from the oil operations in
Cabinda Province. The American
Gulf Oil is the largest operator.
The-:South' African was brought
from the capital's military hospital '
in pajamas,.with his arm' in a sling.
At the .two-hour news conference,
du Toit-.said he Was shot when An-
golan .regulars attacked his unit
near the refinery. . .
-lightly armed.. Angola charges that..
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300027-2