Zambia on Alert, Accusing S. Africa of Sabotage Plans

President Kenneth D. Kaunda put Zambia on military alert Saturday after uncovering what he called sabotage plans intended as part of a massive South African attack.

Large numbers of troops were visible in residential areas of Lusaka, the capital, after the announcement of the mobilization, but Western journalists who drove to Chongwe, 30 miles east of Lusaka, were waved through the only roadblock on the way.

Kaunda said a South African engineer has admitted planning to blow up bridges to assist the assault. Two other South Africans working in Zambian mines have been caught preparing to take back to their homeland secret information about the vital copper industry, he added.

“The plan of the South African regime is to attack Zambia massively,” Kaunda told a press conference.

Quotes South African

According to the would-be saboteur’s confession, he said, the South Africans “wanted to destroy many bridges and cut off a lot of provinces. . . . They wanted to attack many of these provinces and use that as their base for advancing on Lusaka.”

On May 19, the South African air force bombed what Pretoria said was a black nationalist guerrilla base in a refugee camp near Lusaka, killing two people. South African commandos raided Zimbabwe and Botswana the same day.

Kaunda on Saturday called for extreme vigilance and said he had ordered a “partial military mobilization of the nation.” He told reporters that the two arrested mining officials fed classified information on the copper industry into their computer and were planning to take the data back to South Africa.

Asked what the partial mobilization meant, Kaunda said, “Human rights under this partial mobilization will continue to be observed, but that does not mean kissing the enemy.”

Dozens of foreigners have been picked up for questioning in Zambia in the last few weeks, but most have been released after a few hours.