PRETORIA ADMITS TROOPS STILL IN ANGOLA, WON'T CONFIRM REPORT TWO MEN KILLED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706550007-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: May 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000706550007-5
APT'^lE APP RED
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I'A\JN I I Nil l )IN 11 I`'I'.,1
24 'tay 1985
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -
South Africa admitted yesterday that it
still had troops inside Angola - more
than a month after a much-publicized
withdrawal.
But the South African government
would not confirm reports from Angola
that two of its commandos had been
killed and one captured in a clash with
Angolan troops in the oil-rich northern
province of Cabinda.
Gen. Constand Viljoen, chief of the
South African military, confirmed the
presence of intelligence-gathering
troops in Angola in a terse statement
from Pretoria after initially denying that
any remain in the counLrL. He
stopped short, though, of admitting that
it was South African soldiers Angolan
troops had killed and captured.
In Washington, the State Department
said yesterday it "deplores" South Africa
having troops in Angola and that U.S.
diplomacy toward southern African is
aimed at stopping the violence and
obtaining the removal of foreign troops
from the region.
"It is clear the presence of South Afri-
can intelligence-gathering teams inside
.Angola runs contrary to those goals- and
the United States deplores such action;'
department spokesman Bernard Kalb
said.
Reports from Angola said two South
African commandos were killed and one
was captured Wednesday near the
Malongo oil complex in Cabinda prov-
ince, and that short-wave radios, walkie-
talkies, silencer-equipped guns and
nines had been captured.
In Lisbon, Portugal, yesterday, the offi-
cial Angolan news agency ANGOP
quoted a Defense Ministry statement
issued in the Angolan capital of Luanda,
saying the "South African saboteur
group" was on a mission to blow up the
Malongo oil installations operated by
Gulf Oil Corp., which produce about
160,000 barrels of crude daily and gener-
ate an estimated 90 percent of the Ango-
lan government's hard currency
revenues.
The offshore oil fields, located about
270 miles northwest of Luanda on the
Atlantic coast, are guarded by Angolans
and about 4,000 of the 30,000 Cuban
troops estimated to he supporting the
Marxist government of Eduat'do dos San-
Ios,
won't confirm report two
By Michael Sullivan The Cabinda oil fields were hit by sab-
THE WASHINGTON TIMES FOREIGN SERVICE oteurs last July 12 in a strike against the
Pretoria admits troops still in Angola,
25-mile-long pipeline that claimed 10
lives and spilled 42,000 barrels of crude.
The South African-backed Union for the
'Ibtal Independence of Angola (UNITA),
fighting the government since Angola's
independence from Portugal in 1975,
claimed responsibility for that attack but
Angola blamed Pretoria.
Gen. Viljoen, South Africa's military
chief, said: "The defense force is involved
in gathering information about hostile
elements which threaten the safety of
South West Africa and the Republic of
South Africa. In this connection, the
involvement of SWAPO i South West
Africa Peoples' Organization), ANC
[African National Congress) and even
Russian surrogate forces in southern
Africa are continuously studied. For this
purpose, small elements of the defense
force are deployed to gather this informa-
tion"
Gen. Viljoen added, "At the moment,
there is concern because contact with
such a small element has been broken.
This element was gathering information
about ANC bases, SWAPO bases, as well
as Cuban involvement with them in the
area south and north of Luanda"
SWAPO has been waging a guerrilla
war in Namibia for two decades to wrest
control of the territory from South
Africa. South Africa considers the ANC
an illegal organization because it has
refused to renounce violence as a means
of bringing about change in South Africa.
On April 15, South Africa conducted a
much-publicized pullout of what it said
were its last troops inside Angola. The
pullout came 14 months after the two
countries signed a U.S.-mediated
agreement and was welcomed in the
United States as a boost for Washington's
policy of "constructive engagement."
The withdrawal also was seen as an
opening move that could help facilitate
the pullout from Angola of Cuban troops
helping to prop up the Luanda regime.
The withdrawal of the Cubans has
become a ? preconditigli in Pretoria to
implementation of U.N. Resolution 435 on
the independence of Namibia.
Luanda and Havana had already
agreed to a partial withdrawal of the
Cuban troops, but Pretoria's
acknowledgment yesterday that it still
had troops inside Angola may throw cold
water on any good will South Africa had
huilt up in the past month.
,South African troops have been in
men killed
Angola since 1983, when a massive cross-
border operation was mounted to root out
SWAP() bases.
Pretoria has close links with the
UNITA guerrilla movement of Jonas
Savimbi, based in southeast Angola, and
it might have been expected that South
Africa would maintain a military pres-
ence in areas under the control of
UNITA. UNITA controls at-least a third
of the country but has not been active in
Cabinda.
UNITAs military operations up to now
have focused on crippling Angola's dia-
mond industry, which with oil are Luan-
da's main sources of hard currency.
During a briefing earlier this year
with foreign reporters at Jamba, his
headquarters in southeast Angola, Mr.
Savimbi. indicated UNITA soon might
begin operations in Cabinda.
UNITA officers also identified a num-
ber of foreign units they said were oper-
ating with the Angolan military. It was
these forces Gen. Viljoen indicated the
South African troops were monitoring.
Among the foreign troops listed by
UNITA as supporting Angola's army
were: SWAPO, 3,000-5,000; East Ger-
mans, 2,500; Soviets, 1,500; Cubans,
40,000; Portuguese, 3,500; and ANC,
800-1.000.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000706550007-5