S. Africa Raids Zambia, Says 5 Guerrilla Suspects Slain

South African commandos killed five suspected African National Congress guerrillas in two skirmishes during a predawn raid Saturday on the Zambian border town of Livingstone, army headquarters said here. But Zambia and the ANC said all of the dead were Zambian civilians.

The army’s statement said that the commandos were engaged in “an armed reconnaissance . . . on a terrorist infiltration route from Zambia through Botswana” to South Africa when they clashed twice with ANC insurgents, first at a suspected operations center in Livingstone and then at a suburban transit house on the town’s outskirts.

The South African raiders blew up the transit house and a nearby building used as a weapons depot before returning safely to their bases, according to the statement, which added that there was no contact with Zambian troops during the operation.

Zambian officials said that four people were killed--two guards at an insurance company and a man and his wife--and that a fifth person, a woman, was seriously wounded in the attack. All were described as Zambian citizens with no connections to the African National Congress.

Used Copters, Motorbikes

The South African commandos arrived by helicopter and used motorbikes in their raid in Livingstone and the suburb of Dambwa, Zambian officials said. Livingstone residents said they heard prolonged shooting and a series of explosions. Citizens who visited Dambwa after the attack described it as a scene of considerable destruction, with several houses reduced to rubble.

Zambia is 350 miles north of South Africa, with Botswana and Zimbabwe lying between the two countries.

Pretoria did not say where the raid originated, but Zambian sources said they believed the helicopters took off from and returned to a South African air base in the Caprivi Strip, a narrow part of Namibia (South-West Africa), the sparsely populated territory administered by South Africa. The Caprivi Strip jutting eastward from northern Namibia extends to within 40 miles of Livingstone, which is about 600 miles north of Johannesburg and about 225 miles southwest of Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

The raid on Livingstone may have been undertaken as a clandestine foray or perhaps was intended to gather intelligence for a larger operation when the reconnaissance unit was discovered in the town, a resort on the Zambezi River near where the borders of Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia come together.

Intended as a Warning

Gen. Magnus Malan, South Africa’s defense minister, described the raid as limited in its objectives and scope and intended as a warning to Zambia and the other so-called front-line states surrounding South Africa to halt support for the African National Congress and its revolutionary goals or “collide” with South Africa.

“As a result of the threatening situation facing South Africa, regular reconnaissance is vital,” Defense Minister Malan said in a statement that suggested the raid may not have been the commandos’ primary intention. “South Africa cannot afford to be caught off guard. It is obvious that a reconnaissance of this kind has to be carried out with weapons.”

Pretoria had told Zambia in diplomatic messages twice this month that, according to its intelligence, about 150 ANC guerrillas were trying to infiltrate South Africa from Zambia to disrupt next month’s parliamentary elections. The messages said that Zambia would face South African retaliation if it did not stop the insurgents.

Reject Allegations

Zambia and the African National Congress, the principal guerrilla organization fighting minority white rule in Pretoria, rejected Pretoria’s allegations, as did Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. These responses described the charges as a pretext for raids against them to boost the fortunes of South Africa’s ruling National Party in the May 6 whites-only election .

Zambia and the ANC reacted angrily Saturday to the raid.

“Zambia unreservedly condemns this dastardly and unprovoked attack in which four innocent people were killed,” Information Minister Milimo Punabantu said in Lusaka. A spokesman for President Kenneth D. Kaunda described as “rubbish” Pretoria’s assertion that it had slain ANC insurgents heading for South Africa.

In a statement from its Lusaka headquarters, the ANC denounced the raid as a “naked act of aggression and terror” against Zambia and said that the four dead were “murdered by Pretoria’s crazed killer squads.”

Pretoria’s intention, the ANC said, was to justify its earlier assertions that squads of armed ANC guerrillas were being infiltrated into South Africa from neighboring countries to wage a terrorist campaign to disrupt the elections. The ANC has repeatedly denied having such plans.

Western Action Urged

“The question once more arises: How many massacres are the principal Western countries waiting for before they impose comprehensive sanctions against the barbaric apartheid regime?” the ANC asked, recalling that Britain and West Germany earlier this month told South Africa it should not undertake new attacks on its neighbors.

South Africa last attacked Zambia on May 17, 1986, when it bombed a U.N. refugee camp outside Lusaka, killing two people but missing a nearby ANC complex. South African forces also hit suspected ANC targets in Botswana, killing one person, and in Zimbabwe, where buildings were damaged but no one was killed.