Angola Rebel Aid Battle Shapes Up : House Vote Could Force Reagan to Get Congressional OK

As the Senate braces for a showdown with the White House over South African sanctions, a related battle threatens to erupt in the House over Reagan Administration plans to ship covert military aid to South African-linked Angolan rebels.

In what could shape up as a replay of the protracted fight over aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras , the House may vote as early as next week on legislation that would force Reagan to win congressional approval before sending aid to Jonas Savimbi, the rebel leader seeking to topple the Marxist government in Angola.

On Friday, Senate liberals were poised to mount a similar fight, postponing it only after Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind), the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, promised to schedule closed hearings to scrutinize the Administration’s Angolan aid package.

Secret Aid for Savimbi

Last January, the Administration formally notified lawmakers of its intention to bolster Savimbi’s guerrilla army, known as UNITA or the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, with secret aid funneled through the CIA. Though the size and shape of the proposed aid package is also considered secret, congressional sources have indicated that present law would let the intelligence agency tap up to $15 million in reserve funds for UNITA.

In 1976, Congress passed legislation barring any U.S. aid to any of the several factions then fighting a civil war for control of the one-time Portuguese colony in Southern Africa. However, lawmakers last year voted to repeal that prohibition, setting the stage for Reagan’s drive to aid Savimbi.

Critics of Savimbi plan a two-stage attack on the aid request. First, they will seek to cancel the Administration’s authority to provide such assistance without a legislative OK. If successful, they will then fight whatever aid plan Reagan does propose, much as opponents of contra aid have resisted that $100-million package for the anti-Sandinista rebels.

The first round should come when the House takes up “must pass” legislation to reauthorize a wide variety of intelligence programs, possibly next week. Republicans have said they will try to remove a section in the bill that would require congressional review of any Angolan rebel aid package.

Bipartisan Disenchantment

In fighting to retain the language, Democrats hope to capitalize on growing bipartisan disenchantment with the white minority government in South Africa, which currently bankrolls most of Savimbi’s guerrilla activities.

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said aiding Savimbi would link the United States with Pretoria and seriously undermine Washington’s influence with the rest of black Africa.

“This is just too important a foreign policy decision to be made by the President alone,” Hamilton said. “ . . . It would be sending a signal to the world that we’re in alliance with South Africa.”

Also leading the opposition to Savimbi is Rep. Buddy Roemer (D-La.), one of several Southern Democrats whose votes helped Reagan push his contra aid package through the House by a slim margin last month. Roemer, while still expressing support for the Nicaraguan rebel cause, said the Administration had failed to make its case for supporting Savimbi.

‘There Are No Blank Checks’

He vowed to press other Southerners to oppose Reagan’s Angolan plans to signal “the Administration that there are no blank checks.”

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), a Foreign Affairs Committee member and vocal defender of Administration foreign policy goals, acknowledged that Democrats would probably win the anti-Savimbi battle in the House but predicted that the aid package would be revived in some form by the time the intelligence legislation finally clears a House-Senate conference committee.

He said Savimbi deserves to be supported because he is fighting a Marxist regime propped up by the presence of thousands of Cuban troops. And he criticized Democrats for questioning Savimbi’s credentials and motives for fighting the Luanda regime.

“They’ll put out all the old stories--that he’s guilty of atrocities, that he’s a Maoist,” Hyde claimed. “They’d probably say he’s got herpes if they could drag out a doctor to prove it.”

Despite Hyde’s assessment, signs of spreading disenchantment with Reagan’s aid plans surfaced in the Republican-controlled Senate on Friday as the lawmakers in the chamber were debating legislation authorizing a wide variety of Pentagon programs.

Withdraws Amendment

Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.) proposed an amendment similar to the House measure that would force Reagan to submit aid for Savimbi to Congress. He withdrew the amendment after securing Lugar’s promise of hearings.

But during debate on the measure, Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), chairman of the Foreign Relations panel’s Africa subcommittee, signaled disapproval for such secret aid programs. Kassebaum said the defense bill is the wrong forum to debate the issue, but added, “The problem is not in Angola, it’s in our whole approach to covert policy.”