CUBA SAID TO RESIST LEAVING ANGOLA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640017-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: May 10, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640017-2
ARTICLE APPJARED
ON PAGE
NEW YORK TD'S
10 May 1984
Cuba Said to Resist Leaving Angola
1" By BERNARD tiw ERTZMAN
Special to The New 'York Times
WASHINGTON, May 9 ? Cuba has
told Angola that it opposes beginning a
phased withdrawal of its troops from
Angola now because a settlement in
southern Africa might help President
Reagan's re-election prospects, Ad-
ministration officials said today.
Cuba is thought to have 25,000 to
30,000 troops in Angola. Because of its
resistance to withdrawing them, State
Department officials, who earlier this
year were saying they were mildly op-
timistic about a diplomatic break-
through, said they-no longer expected
an accord before the end of the year.
The officials said their information
on the Cuban position had come from
third parties who had discussed the
matter with the Angolans. Because of
the Administration's refusal to negoti-
ate with Cuba about southern Africa, it
has been difficult for the United States
to obtain a firsthand view of the Cuban
position, officials said.
U.S. and Cubans Confer
After a long debate in the Adminis-
tration, however, the United States In-
terest Section in Havana was author-
ized last month for the first time to ex-
plain the American position on Angola
and other southern African issues to
? Cuban Foreign Ministry officials, State
Department officials said. "The
Cubans listened but said little," one of-
ficial said. "Our impression is that we
won't get anywhere.
The Cubans were told, an official
said, that the United States was sup-
porting efforts to gain independence for
South-West Africa, also called Namib-
ia, under United Nations auspices, and
that a Cuban withdrawal from Angola,
Namibia's neighbor to the north, was
necessary to bring this about.
The apparent Cuban reluctance to do
anything that might seem to aid Mr.
Reagan's political fortunes follows a
pattern set by the Soviet Union, which
has also refused to cooperate with the
Administration in reducing tension and
reaching agreements. On Tuesday,
Moscow announced that it would not
send a team to the Olympic Games in
Los Angeles.
In February, after months of diplo-
matic efforts, the Reagan Administra-
tion was able to put together an agree-
ment between Angola and South Af-
rica, which administers Namibia in
defiance of the United Nations. The
South Africans agreed to a phased
withdrawal of their 1,500 troops from
southern Angola. This was a condition
set by the Angolans for progress on
Namibian independence, the with-
drawal of Cuban forces from Angola,
the withdrawal of South African troops
from Namibia and the entry of United
Nations forces into the area. Once the
Cubans begin to leave, the United
States will establish 'diplomatic rela-
tions with Angola, officials said.
South Africa Has a Condition
The South Africans have said they
will be willing to go along with the
United Nations plan for Namibian inde-
pendence if the Cubans are withdrawn
from Angola. The United States sup-
ports the South African demand as
realistic.
The South Africans have now moved
their troops to the last of the agreed
staging points on the Angolan side of
the border, a town called Ngiva, State
Department officials said. At the rate
the withdrawal is going, the South Afri-
cans could be out of Angola by the end
of May, one official said.
This would then make the question of
Cuban withdrawal acute, officials said,
because nothing can happen until such
a timetable is worked out. The Cubans
began arriving in Angola as soon as in-
dependence was declared in November
1975 to support Government forces
against rebel forces.
Cuba Explained Its Problems
In March, President Jos?duardo
dos Santos of Angola spent three days
in Havana with a large delegatio1i dis-
cussing strategy with President Fidel
Castro and other Cubans. They ended
their talks with a reaffirmation that
they would carry out "the gradual
withdrawal" of Cuban troops once
their conditions were met.
These conditions included the with-
drawal of South African troops from
Angola, acceptance of the United Na-
tions plan and South Africa's ending its
raids against Angola and its aid to An-
golan rebels.
But State Department officials said
their information was that the Cubans
told the Angolans, in effect, that al-
though the Angolans could ask them to
leave whenever they wanted to, they
had problems of their own that they
wanted Angola to take account of.
Primarily, the Administration offi-
cials said, the Cubans said the United
States had blamed them for trouble in
El Salvador because of their support
for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The
Cubans reportedly said they were con-
cerned that a phased withdrawal from
Angola would be seen as a major diplo-
matic achievement for the Reagan Ad-
ministration and would encourage
more pressure against Cuba.
Chester A. Crocker, the Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs,
has just finished a tour of West Euro-
pean capitals in which he briefed allies
on the situation. He is now in Egypt and
plans to go to the Sudan but has no
plans, officials said, to confer with the
Angolans.
Officials said high-level contacts
with Angola were expected to resume
late this month or next month.
Recent intelligence estimates im_the
number of Cuban combat troops in An-
gola have risen to 25.000 to 30.000. The
estimate had been about 20,000. There
are also said to be 3,000 to 5,000 Soviet
military advisers and several thousand
Cuban civilians present. In addition,
East Germans train the police and fly
Angola's airplanes.
The Angolans, who receive about $1.5
billion a year in foreign exchange from
Western oil companies, including Gulf
and Texaco, have to pay the Cubans,
Russians and East Germans from $750
million to $1.5 billion.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640017-2