ANGOLAN PRAISES AID VOTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900075-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: July 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900075-4
ARTICLE APP REDS
ON PAGE -'
WASHINGTON POST
20 July 1985
Arigolan Praises Aid Vote.
Rebel Spokesman Seeks `Moral Support, ' Not Arms
By David B. Ottaway
Washington Post Staff Writer
The chief foreign spokesman for the pro-
Western rebels fighting the Soviet-backed
Marxist regime in Angola says that recent
congressional action repealing the ban on
U.S. military aid to his group was "a very
encouraging change" in U.S. policy.
But Jeremias K. Chitunda added in an
interview that the rebels seek only "unam-
biguous political and moral support" from
Washington.
Chitunda disclosed that his National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) had been making plans to attack
the main oil facility in northern Angola
when South Africans staged a raid on it May
21. The facility is partly owned by Gulf Oil.
Chitunda, UNITA's foreign affairs sec-
retary, charged that Gulf Oil was "subsidiz-
ing" the Soviet and Cuban "occupation" of
Angola as well as the Marxist Angolan gov-
ernment's war against UNITA, which he
estimated cost $4 million a day.
"Today, Gulf Oil has got its fingers prac-
tically dripping with the blood of the An-
golan people," he said. "Can we stand by.just
watching Gulf Oil continue to do what it is
and not react? No, we can't."
The South African raid came, he said, just
as UNITA was acquiring the technical
know-how and "advancing its preparations
to undertake such activities" to knock out
the oil production facilities in northern
Cabinda district.
The raid complicated UNITA's task, he
said, by causing the Angolan government to
triple its vigilance and by undermining
UNITA's credibility.
"Anything we do in Cabinda, people will
say, 'You see that may be the hand of South
Africa again.' So, militarily, they [the South
Africans] make it difficult for us now to car-
ry out our programs against Gulf Oil instal-
lations in Cabinda."
Chitunda's comments about UNITA's in-
tentions to put Gulf Oil out of operation un-
derscored the complex nature of the auey.
tion before Congress and the administration
of whether to resume milita or an other
kind of assistance to UNITA. which the
Central Intelligence Agency aided during
the 1975-76 civil war until Congress
stopped it.
Gulf Oil holds a 49 percent interest in and
operates Angola's main oil-producing com-
pany. It constitutes the main U.S. invest-
ment in that country as well as the Angolan
government's chief source of foreign rev-
enue.
Congress has yet to take final action to
reverse a 1976 prohibition on aid to UNITA
and the Reagan administration has said it
has "no plans" to resume assistance.
Chitunda said UNITA neither seeks nor
needs military assistance from the United
States, although he said UNITA feels that
any humanitarian aid to Angola should be`
distributed on an "even-handed" basis be-
tween the Angolan government and his
group, according to the population each side.
controls. He claimed UNITA has 3.7 million
of Angola's 7 million people, mostly in.the,
southern half of Angola.
The United States has earmarked $12*'
million this fiscal year in indirect emergen-
cy assistance for Angola through relief'
agencies such as the Geneva-based Inter
national Red Cross.
Chitunda's main request, however, is for
Washington to use the repeal on the ban of
aid to UNITA as "a stick" to pressure the
Marxist government into negotiations on a
political settlement that would end the dec-
ade-long civil war and secure the withdraw-
al of the 25,000 to 30,000 Cuban troops
stationed in Angola.
"We expect to get from the United States
a strong and unambiguous political and mor-.
al support to [resolve] the basic questions of.
national reconciliation, the withdrawal of all
foreign forces from Angola, the holding of
free elections and the creation of durable
democratic institutions for our people," he
said.
Chitunda said he did not believe the An-
golan government would adhere for long to
its decision last week to break off talks with
the United States on withdrawal of Cuban
troops and holding of U.N.-supervised elec-
tions in neighboring South African-admin-
istered Namibia. The decision was made in
retaliation for Congress' lifting the ban. on
aid to UNITA.
Calling it "a temporary outburst" of an-
ger, Chitunda predicted that the Marxist.
government would "very soon" return to ne?
gotiations because, he said, "we know the;
thing [it] dreads the most is the possibility
of United States assistance to UNITA."
The United States must continue its dip-
lomatic efforts because, he said, "everybody
recognizes the fact that only the United.
States can carry out this diplomatic broker-
age."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900075-4