Mozambique Denies Plot on Malawi
The government Friday angrily denied an allegation by South Africa on Thursday that the late President Samora M. Machel, killed in an air crash last month, was plotting with Zimbabwe to overthrow the government of neighboring Malawi.
In Harare, Zimbabwean state radio also dismissed the charge.
Mozambique’s official news agency AIM quoted Information Minister Teodato Hunguana as saying, “This is a vulgar attempt to turn the victim into an accused, to turn the person who has been attacked into the attacker, to turn the country that has been invaded into an invader and to present the country that is being destabilized as the destabilizer.”
South African Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said Thursday that the accusation was based on a document found in the wreckage of a plane that crashed in South Africa last month, killing Machel and 33 other people.
He said it showed that Machel met Zimbabwean officials on Oct. 16 to plot the overthrow of Malawian President H. Kamuzu Banda, the only black African leader to have established full diplomatic links with South Africa.
AIM said Hunguana accused South Africa of hindering investigations into the Oct. 19 crash of Machel’s TU-134 plane.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
