ANGOLA EXTOLS CUBAN AND SOVIET TIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200880002-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200880002-5
ARTICLE APP~1R~p NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE eila,. 16 December 1985
Angola Extols Cuban and Soviet Ties
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LUANDA, Angola, Dec. 15 - If the
statements heard at a party congress
hers last week are any indication, then
Angela is not about to lessen its ties to
tk ' Soviet Union or ease out some
30,000 Cuban troops helping to fight a
10-year-old bush war against anti-Com-
munist guerrillas.
The congress, the second held by the
ruling Marxist-Leninist Movement for
the Liberation of Angola - Workers
Party since independence from Portu-
gal a decade ago, rang with speeches of
bravura and defiance of the West.
President Josh Eduardo doe Santos
warmly praised Havana and Moscow,
and he linked the United States to South
Africa, his main external enemy.
"Warlike circles of the United States
of America persist in encouraging rac-
ist South Africa to continue an aggres-
si* and destabilizing policy against
neighboring cotmtries," he declared at
the closing session Monday. He vowed
that Angola would never again be
"colonized or subjected to any form of
domination."
U.S. Policy Decision Due
The words and tone of the Mgms
hays a specs significance this year,
RSp M a become the focus
of ig ion t ford li d
for =Administration. After
d eo
Ian civil war, Washington is consider-
ing, proyidinlg open or covert aid tope
anti-Government forces
Say". which control a larite part of
tions, because Mr. Savimbi is openly
supported by South Africa, whose
apartheid regime is an anathema to
much of black Africa. Furthermore,
Washington has long been trying to ne-
gotiate a comprehensive peace agree-
meet In southern Africa in which
Cubans would leave Angola in ex-
change for a South African departure
frotr! South-West Africa. Pretoria rule
the territory, also known as Namibia,
in defiance of the United Nations.
Reagan Administration officials
have said disbursement of aid to the
rebels will be delayed until early next
year, in hopes that the threat of financ-
ing. Mr. Savimbi's rebels will force
Luanda to set a timetable for getting
the Cubans to leave.'
But the speeches- here indicated that
the threat, so far at least, has only
made the Angolan Government cling
even tighter to the Cubans. Some diplo-mats and others say they believe that
Mr. $avimbi's National Union for the
Total Indiependence of Angola has be-
come so strong that the ruling party
would be toppled if it were not for the
Cubans.
In a parade Tuesday commemorat-
ing the independence that came on
Nov, 11, 19775~ about 100 Cubans in civil-
ian clothes marched past the reviewing
stand in the train square ham chanting
to metal applause, "Viva Angola y
Cubal"
The weeklong party congress,' the
first in five years, elected a new central
committee, which will serve until 1990.
It is dominated by army commanders.
President doe Santos, reading for six
hours on Monday from a report pre-
pared by the outgoing central commit-
tee, said: "The Soviet Union with its
material, moral, political and diplo-
matic support continues to be the de-
pendable rearguard of all people who
struggle for freedom and Independ-
ence. Cuba's sons have irrigated our
sacred soil with their blood and have
supported, shoulder-to-shoulder with
their Angolan brothers, the defense of
the conquest of the revolution against
external aggressions."
Rebel Aid Ban Rap,alM
He also declared: "The racist state
of South Africa has become the faithful
guardian of the strategic Interests of
the U.S.A. in southern Africa. The re-
peal of the Clark
the bl of tuft C.I.J6 to con-
tinue a long list of crimes mast the
o an 2MIe.1,
A
The Amendment, named for
its sponsor, former Senator Dick Clark
of Iowa, had banned aid to the Angolan
rebels. The law, which was revealed
last summer, was g2pted in er
toe United es Central t
Agency
another ro-Western gu201la army
os a power s e Defore
In July a Angolans, angered by the
repeal of the Clark Amendment, sus-
pended their intermittent negotiations
with South Africa that United States of-
ficials have brokered for the last three
years.
In late November the talks resumed.
The chief American negotiator, Ches-
ter A. Crocker, Assistant Secretary of
State for African Affairs, is expected to
come here within a month.
Diplomats here expressed skepti
cism last week that the regional peace
talks promoted by the United States
would lead anywhere.
"The Angolans we negotiations as a
stalling operation to stave on aid for
Units," a Western diplomat said, using
the common acronym in Protuguese
for the Savimbi group. "They're very
much motivated by holding off aid to
Units."
Another Western diplomat said:
"Some Angolans believe that South Af-
rica will collapse next year, so why not
wait it out?"
And an African diplomat said: "With
the people elected to the new central
committee, the Americans should ex-
pect a tougher stand...
But the diplomat, like many inter-
viewed here, did not believe that grant-
ing aid to Units would bring peace to
the region. "Granting aid to Units
means driving Angola more towards
the Soviet Union," he said.
Representatives here of two African
guerrilla groups said providing aid to
Units would put the United States in an
unsavory alliance with South Africa.
"We make no difference between
Units and South Africa," said Kandy
Nhova, deputy secretary for informa-
tion of the South-West African People's
Organization, which is fighting for the
independence of Namibia. "We see
Unite as a traitor to the African cause
of liberation, and we look with suspi-
cion on whoever helps this group."
"This alliance would be very bad,"
agreed Uriah Mokeba, the representa-
tive here of the African National Con-
gress, which is fighting for majority
rule in South Africa. "This is not con-
structive engagement but destructive
engagement."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200880002-5