REBELS OF 4 NATIONS FORM ANTILEFTIST FRONT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303610002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303610002-8
'Rebels of 4 Nations
Form Antileftist Front
Groups' Meeting in Angola
Organized by I.S. Lobby
By Alfonso Chardy
Knight-Ridder
JAMBA, Angola, June 5-Guerrilla leaders from Nic-
aragua, Afghanistan, Laos and Angola formed the
world's first alliance of anticommunist rebels during an
American-organized conference in a rebel-controlled
part of Angola last weekend.
In a communique issued Sunday, representatives of
the four groups pledged to "cooperate" in halting "So-
viet colonialism," but stressed that their alliance will
not involve exchanges of troops, arms or funds.
News of the meeting was delayed because the char-
tered aircraft that journalists were using broke down
and they could not leave Angola until today.
R nt a messa a of support to the
se 8
d
WASHINGTON POST
6 June 1985
Jonas Savimbi, conference host
and leader of the National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola,
said the alliance's first goal is "to
make the people of the United
States understand the struggle" of
the rebel groups.
The alliance will have a "central
clearinghouse" in Washington, said
Lewis Lehrman, a New York Re-
publican who is chairman of the
Washington-based Citizens for
America, the conservative lobbying
group that organized the confer-
ence. He gave no further details.
But another Citizens for America
official said his organization may
lobby Congress for a package of
U.S. aid for the insurgent forces
that formed the alliance and others
that may join later. He also said that
rebel delegates at: the conference
had vowed that at least one of their
movements will achieve victory be-
fore the end of Reagan's presiden-
tial term in 1988.
The communique, called the Dec-
lvl~ua -1.1
tend because the military situation
in their country was "very serious,"
according to Jack Wheeler, a con-
ference organizer. But former
prime minister Son Sann, leader of
the Khmer People's National Lib-
eration Front, sent a message of
solidarity to the conference.
[A Portuguese radio report last
week had said that Cuban and Mo-
zambican resistance movements
also would. be represented at the
conference. According to the report
by Radio Commercial, the organiz-
ers plan a follow-up conference to
be held in Washington in July.]
Although Savimbi was the sum-
mit's official host, the event was
organized by Lehrman, who
brought Reagan's message. Lehr-
man is a personaffriend of the pres-
ident and was an unsuccessful can-
didate for governor of New York in
1982.
The organization he heads, Cit-
izens for America, is currently lob-
bying Congress to restore U.S. aid
to the Nicaraguan rebels, cut off
since spring of 1984. Lehrman ac-
knowledged that the alliance with
the Afghan rebels, whose cause is
highly popular * in Congress, could
help his organization advance the
Nicaraguan guerrillas' cause among
U.S. lawmakers.
Savimbi indicated that the new
alliance may lead the White House
to seek the repeal of the Clark
Amendment, a 1975 congressional
ban on U.S. military or humanitar-
ian aid to the Angolan guerrillas
battling their country's Marxist
government.
Savimbi said he wants the Clark
Amendment repealed not so much
to receive U.S. aid but to issue a
clear warning to the Angolan gov'-
ernment to send home the 25,006
Cuban troops now defending the.
government.
Rebel delegates and the two doz-
en journalists who covered the con-
ference were flown into rebel-oc-
cupied Angola aboard a dilapidated
DC3 transport plane owned by ?a
South African charter company:
They took off from a small suburban
airfield outside Johannesburg.
Western diplomats in the region
say South Africa's white-minority
government is the principal source
of aid for Savimbi's rebels.
ent eagan
Presi
'conference, saying that the rebels' goals "are our laration of the Democratic Interna-
goals." tional, issued at the end of the two-
"Around the world we see people joining together to day conference, said that the rebel
. free their nations from outside domination and an groups had decided to unite because
alien ideology," Reagan's letter said. their goal is the same: "indepen-
Reagan's letter did not mention any U.S. assistance dence from Soviet colonialism, a
to the insurgents, although the CIA is known to have
provided more than $250 million to the Afghan rebels colonialism brutally enforced by
Soviet troops troops and the troops of her
fighting Soviet to ccupation orces and $0 million to surrogates." "
icaraguan rebels -fighting, the Marxist-led an mista Besides Calero and Savimbi, the
government.
The first conference of Armed Movements Fighting two-page declaration was signed by
Against Soviet Expansionism was held in Jamba, the Pa Kao Her of the Ethnics Liber-
Angolan rebels' "provisional capital" in southeastern ation Organization of Laos and Ghu-
Angola, about 50 miles north of the border with the lam Wardak of the Islamic Unity of
South African-controlled territory of Namibia. Afghanistan Mujaheddin.
Rebel? delegates held out the possibility that= ex- Wardak is a former rebel who
changes' of people and arms might take place in the fu- I now performs political work in the
{ United States. Conference organiz-
ture. __ ers said the Afghan rebels' military
"As time goes by, we will deft- chiefs wanted to attend the Jamba
nitely implement many ways to co- meetings but were prevented from
opetate with each other, which will coming by Pakistan, the country
be made known at the appropriate they use as a support base. The or-
time," said Adolfo Calero, head of ganizers said Pakistani authorities
about' 12,000 men in the Ni- gave no reason for their refusal.
caraguan Democratic Force. Cambodian rebels fighting
against Vietnamese occupation
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303610002-8