Botha Warns Mozambique on Guerrillas

President Pieter W. Botha said Friday that South Africa reserves the right to act against African National Congress guerrillas on Mozambican territory, despite a nonaggression pact between the two neighboring countries.

Botha did not say South African troops would raid Mozambique, as they did before the Nkomati Accord of 1984, and denied that South Africa is aiding right-wing Mozambican rebels, asserting that the pact is still in operation.

Botha accused Mozambique of violating the Nkomati Accord by continuing support for the banned ANC, which has stepped up an urban bombing campaign in South Africa in recent months.

Links Pretoria to Deaths

Mozambique charged that South Africa was behind a massacre in the Mozambican village of Homoine last month, where it says Mozambique National Resistance rebels killed about 400 civilians. South Africa denied involvement.

Last Monday, 86 were killed in a rebel attack on the Mozambican town of Manjacaze, the official Mozambican news agency AIM said Friday. The toll earlier was put at 72.

The agency said 14 more bodies were found within a five-mile radius of the town in southern Gaza province, where an estimated 600 well-armed Mozambique National Resistance guerrillas battled nine government soldiers for several hours.

Botha told Parliament: “Our rules of the game are that we do not tolerate the export of revolution--Mozambique and the ANC have to understand. Terrorists have to be stopped wherever they may be.”

Says Guerrillas Intercepted

He said South African intelligence knew well in advance when ANC guerrillas were about to cross the Mozambican border into South Africa. “You would be surprised to know how many get stopped before they get here.”

Botha’s speech, which departed extensively from his prepared text, was more conciliatory in tone than frequent warnings to Mozambique issued by South Africa’s defense minister, Gen. Magnus Malan.

Last week, Mozambican Cooperation Minister Jacinto Veloso flew to Cape Town at South Africa’s request to meet a top-level diplomatic and security delegation in an attempt to defuse tensions between the two countries.