PRETORIA MOUNTS A RAID IN ANGOLA ON NAMIBIA REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605690004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: September 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 CIA-RDP90-00965R000605690004-5
NEW YORK TIMES
17 September 1985
PRETORIA MOUNTS
A RAID IN ANGOLA
ON NAMIBIA REBELS
MOVE CALLED PRE-EMPTIVE
Military Chief Says Insurgents
Planned to Strike Targets
in South-West Africa
By SHEILA RULE
Special to no New Ya t 7Lem
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 14 -South
African forces raided Angola today in
what was described as a pre-emptive
strike against guerrillas fighting
eretoria's control of South-West Af-
rica.
The raid came less than three
months after a South African raid into
Angola in which 57 insurgents were re-
ported killed and 5 were captured.
Details of the latest raid were
sketchy this evening. The South Af-
rican military chief said the action had
been undertaken after "intensive
reconnaissance" revealed that the
South-West Africa People's Organiza-
tion planned to bomb military bases
and attack "soft targets" in the north-
central part of South-West Africa, as
well as larger towns and residential
areas in the territory.
Account of Rebels' Plan
in announcing the raid, the military
chief, Gen. Constand Viljoen, said re-
ports of the guerrillas' plans had been
confirmed when "two disguised terror-
ists were arrested at a shop" in South-
West Africa, a former German colony,
that is widely known as Namibia.
General Viljoen said the men were
members of the Eighth Battalion of the
South-West Africa People's Organiza-
tion, known by the acronym SWAPO,
"and intended to set the shop-alight
after they had bought supplies."
ternative than to continue with this
operation."
Officials said that it was difficult to
predict how long the operation would
last, but that they hoped it would end
within a week. .
The raid seemed to display South Af-
rica's readigess to look after its per.
r
ceived security interests no matte
what the international repercussions.
South Africa administers SoutbhWest.
Africa in defiance of United` Nations
resolutions and has been fighting the
insurgents there for two decades.
South Africa was Internationally con
demned for earlier raids into Angola
and Botswana and for installing an in-
terim government in South-West Af-
rica in June - an administration that
critics characterised as a front for con-
tinued South African dominance. The
South-West Africa People's Organize
tion is excluded from the territorial ad-
ministration.
Generid military had ban told today's Angolan
opera-
tion and had been asked not to inter-
fere.
"Intensive reconnaissance also
showed that SWAPO, using its Eighth
Battalion and other special forces, '
planned stand-off bombardments on
military bases and attacks on soft tar-
gets" in Ovamboland, in the north-cen-
tral part of the territory, he said.
"SWAPO also intended to attack
larger towns and residential areas in
South-West Africa," he asserted.
A military official estimated that the
Eighth Battalion could include 400 to
800 men but said they were now "well
dispersed" within southern Angola.
'Irrefutable EvidUOON
"After their arrest, they admitted
they were part of a reconnaigeancq.
sabotage team," he said in a brief
statement. "In the light of this irrefuta-
ble evidence of SWAPO's plans di-
rected at the inhabitants of South-West
Africa and their contempt of repeated
warnings to cease their violence, the
security forces are left with no other al-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605690004-5