Commando Units Still in Angola, S. Africa Says

Barely a month after withdrawing what it said were the last of its combat troops from Angola, South Africa admitted Thursday that “small groups” of its commandos still operate there, gathering intelligence and, according to Angola, assisting anti-government guerrillas in sabotage operations.

Although refusing to comment on an Angolan report that two South African soldiers have been killed and a third captured in a clash with Angolan forces, the South African Defense Ministry acknowledged in Pretoria that “contact has been broken” with one of its military reconnaissance units operating in northern Angola.

Gen. Constand Viljoen, chief of the South African defense forces, said in a statement that his troops have been monitoring the activities in Angola of the outlawed African National Congress and the South-West Africa People’s Organization, a Namibian resistance group, and the assistance they were receiving from Cuban forces stationed there.

Sparks Political Uproar

Viljoen’s admission, coming after repeated government declarations here that it had withdrawn all its troops from Angola in mid-April--aside from a platoon helping guard a joint hydroelectric complex--in accordance with an agreement signed last year, caused an immediate political uproar.

“Just as South Africa demands that there be no interference in its internal affairs,” said Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the liberal white opposition Progressive Federal Party, “its neighbors have the same right to be free of South African interference, particularly military operations on their territory.”

The Angolan Defense Ministry said Wednesday in Luanda, the Angolan capital, that government troops and armored vehicles surprised the South Africans, apparently operating with guerrillas belonging to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, known as UNITA from its Portuguese initials, while they were preparing to blow up facilities at the American-operated oil complex in Cabinda, a small Angolan coastal enclave separated from Angola proper by a narrow section of Zaire.

Guns, Mines, Radios

The Angolan Defense Ministry communique said that silencer-equipped guns, submachine guns, three military radios, walkie-talkies, 16 mines, two firebombs and crates of other explosives, all apparently of South African manufacture, had been captured. Except for the two South Africans reported killed and the one captured, no casualty figures were given, though the amount of equipment reportedly seized suggested that at least 30 or 40 men might have been involved.

While not commenting directly on the Angolan statement, Viljoen said South Africa regularly sends intelligence-gathering teams into neighboring countries to the north to assess the activities of the African National Congress, the South-West Africa People’s Organization and “Russian surrogate forces,” as he called the 30,000 Cuban troops stationed in Angola.

“At the moment, there is concern because contact with such a small element has been broken,” Viljoen said in a statement. “This element was gathering information about African National Congress bases and SWAPO bases as well as Cuban involvement with them in the area south and north of Luanda.”