Namibia Clash Spurs S. Africa Threat to U.N.

South Africa threatened Saturday to expel a large U.N. peacekeeping force on its first day of work in Namibia after charging that guerrillas entering from Angola had clashed with Namibian police as a formal cease-fire went into effect, leaving 38 insurgents and two police officers dead.

Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, South Africa’s foreign minister, called the clash a “flagrant violation” of international agreements. He said that if the U.N. secretary general did not issue a clear statement on the matter, South Africa would ask U.N. peacekeepers to leave until the South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which has fought a 23-year guerrilla war against South African control, “can be brought to its senses.”

Despite Botha’s threat, it was considered unlikely that South Africa would expel the U.N. team that is here to oversee Namibia’s transition to independence because that would wreck the entire process and allow Cuba to renege on its agreement to withdraw its troops from neighboring Angola.

SWAPO officials declined to comment Saturday, saying they needed more information about the incidents before answering South Africa’s charges.

The U.N. special representative in Namibia, Martti Ahtisaari, said he would send a four-member team to the area of the clashes, about 400 miles north of Windhoek, today. Ahtisaari considered them “a very serious development,” according to a U.N. spokesman.

“We need to go up there and find out for ourselves” what happened, said Frederic Eckhard, the U.N. spokesman in Windhoek, the Namibian capital. Eckhard added that “it’s safe to say” that U.N. peacekeeping forces were not involved.

Statements issued by Botha and Louis Pienaar, the South African administrator in charge of Namibia, cited three separate incidents along 120 miles of the Namibia-Angola border, beginning before the cease-fire went into effect at 6 a.m. local time Saturday. They said a group of 40 to 50 armed men entered Namibia near Ruacana, a second group of about 50 entered near Oshikango and a third group was encountered halfway between the two cities.

Accused of Atrocities

Security police sources in northern Namibia told The Times that the incursions were repelled by units of Koevoet, a counterinsurgency unit of 3,000 black Namibians under the command of white South Africans. The unit, which has been accused of widespread atrocities, was recently returned to normal police work and incorporated into Namibia’s police force.

The sources could not confirm the number killed in the attacks but said two alleged SWAPO guerrillas had been captured and others were being sought late Saturday night. Botha said 14 police officers were injured.

Botha did not specify what weapons were used by either side, but under the U.N. peace plan Namibia’s police were to begin carrying only pistols “in the normal performance of their duties.”

December Agreement

The incidents apparently marked the first serious clashes between SWAPO and South African-backed Namibian authorities since South Africa, Cuba and Angola signed an agreement in December that paved the way for Namibia’s independence and the withdrawal of 50,000 Cuban troops from Angola, Namibia’s northern neighbor.

Under a U.N. plan intended to lead to free and fair elections here in November, both SWAPO and the South African Defense Force were restricted to their bases beginning on Saturday. Most of SWAPO’s bases are in southern Angola.

South Africa is conducting the transition to Namibian independence, but its actions are subject to the approval of the United Nations, which, at peak periods, will have a team of about 7,000 soldiers, police and administrators to monitor the process. SWAPO, with strong support among residents of the most populous northern region, is favored to win the elections.

In Windhoek’s black township of Katutura on Saturday, tens of thousands of Namibians donned the bright colors of their political parties to try out their new freedom and begin campaigning to govern Africa’s last colony.

Police stopped several thousand trade unionists as they began a march from the township to Windhoek to protest a move to sell Namibian enterprises to private investors. The group dispersed without incident.

Jubilant Crowds

Namibia’s two major political parties--the Marxist-oriented, predominantly black SWAPO and the capitalist, multiracial Democratic Turnhalle Alliance--drew jubilant, singing crowds of about 5,000 each to rallies less than two miles apart. The country’s first unfettered political campaigning, conducted under a hot sun, was generally peaceful.

Namibia is a mostly desert territory twice the size of California on the southwest coast of Africa. Its population of 1.5 million is overwhelmingly black, and more than half live in the northern Ovambo province, the seat of SWAPO support.

Tens of thousands of SWAPO guerrillas have been killed since 1965, when the group launched its war with South Africa, which has controlled this territory for 74 years--the last 20 years in defiance of the United Nations.

Until recently, South Africa had questioned the United Nations’ impartiality in Namibia because the international body had once declared SWAPO the “sole and authentic” representative of the people of Namibia.

The United Nations currently has only about 1,000 peacekeeping troops in the country, and U.N. officials say the full force of 4,650 troops will not arrive until May 1.

The troop deployment was delayed by haggling at the United Nations earlier this year over the cost of the mission. To cut the cost, now set at $461 million, the United States and the Soviet Union reduced--to 4,650 from the originally planned 6,000--the number of troops for Namibia’s transition to independence and black majority rule.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on a one-day visit to Namibia, said Saturday the border incidents were “a most serious challenge” to the Namibian peace process and she called for a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the matter.

NEW ERA FOR NAMIBIA Saturday marked the start of a transition period for Namibia under a regional accord reached in December by Angola, Cuba and South Africa, which has administered the huge, sparsely populated territory since World War I. Hours before the transition began, South Africa reported major clashes with guerrillas in northern Namibia near Ruacana and Oshikango. Provisions of the plan: April 1--Cease-fire in 23-year-old Namibian guerrilla war becomes official; U.N. special representative Martti Ahtisaari takes charge of 7,000-member U.N. Transition Assistance Group that will oversee transition. South African troops in Namibia and guerrillas of South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), based in neighboring Angola, are confined to bases.

May 14--South African security force is to be disbanded; South Africa is to reduce its troops to 12,000. South African administrator Louis Pienaar is to publish election rules, subject to U.N. approval.

June 3--Political prisoners to be freed; Namibian exiles to return.

July 1--South Africa’s forces to be cut to 1,500; election campaigning to begin.

Oct. 31--Half of Cuba’s 50,000 troops are to have left Angola; rest are to withdraw north of 13th Parallel.

Nov. 1--Elections are to be held for Namibian Constituent Assembly, empowered to approve constitution for independent Namibia--the independence date to be decided.

Nov. 8--Remaining South African troops are to leave.

April 1, 1990--U.N. transition group’s mandate is to end.

July 1, 1991--Cubans are to withdraw last troops.