Page 14-Tuesday, July 18, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Angolan guerrillas predict fall o
A AP NEWSANALYIA dozenSoviet generals reortedly dozens of Angolan rebel leaders who
KINSHASA, 7aire-Angolan guerrilla
leaders here confidently predict the
Marxist government to Luanda, prop-
ped up by the Soviet Union and protec-
ted by Cuban troops, will suffer a
similar fate to that of U.S.-backed
South Vietnam.
The leaders believe that, like the
Americans in Vietnam, the Russians
and Cubans are new hands at coun-
terinsurgency tactics in African jungle
and savanna terrain and are unfamiliar
with the alien languages and customs of
the local people.
They also maintain, as do indepen-
dent analysts, that the Luanda gover-
nment would fall if either the foreign
troops were withdrawn or free popular
elections were held.
The guerrilla leaders and Western
observers here picture the Soviet Union
as backing an undemocratic minority
government.
JORGE SANGUMBA, foreign
minister of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA
guerrilla army whicl poses the biggest
threat to the government, sits behind a
map of his country in his office here and
with a sweep of his hand declares:
"Angola will be the Soviet's Vietnam."
Reminiscent of American military
aid to South Vietnam in the 1960s,
Moscow today has hundreds of military
advisers in Angola alongside up to
20,000 Cuban troops, according to
Western intelligence sources.
arrived in Angola last month, demon- divide their time between their Cuban-
strating to the guerrillas Luanda's patrolled homeland and the sanctuary
dependence on foreign troops against of this refugee-crowded central African
them. All previous operations to capital.
destroy them have failed. A 32-year-old alumnus of Manhattan
'The leaders believe that, like the Ameri-
cans in Vietnam, the Russians and Cubans
are new hands at. counterinsurgency tactics
in African jungle and savanna terrain and
are unfamilair with the alien languages
and customs of the people.'
DESPITE THE Soviet and Cuban ef-
fort, UNITA, which is the National
Union for the Total Liberation of
Angola, controls more than a third of
the territory, about twice the size of
Texas, and half of the 6 million
inhabitants, according to Western
diplomats here.
And most of the 1.5 million inhabitan-
ts of six northern provinces are
believed by Western sources to be loyal
to the second biggest movement,
Holden Roberto's National Liberation
Front (FNLA). P
Sangumba and Roberto are two of
FOLD BACK THIS FLAP & SEAL WITH TAPE
College in New York, Sangumba en-
visages an escalation in the war against
the forces of Angolan President
Agostinho Neto.
NETO'S GOVERNMENT
unilaterally assumed power in Luanda
three years ago after a civial war bet-
ween rival guerrilla armies which had
fought the Portuguese colonial ad-
ministration for independence. UNITA
and FNLA, outgunned and outmanned
by Neto's Cuban-backed forces, were
badly mauled in fighting in the capital
and were forced to flee to the coun-
tryside.
r
f Marxists
Neto has yet to hold promised popular
elections which the guerrilla movemen-
ts claim they would win.
Like many guerrilla leaders,
Sangumba says he spends about nline
months of the year in UNITA-held
areas of southern and central Angola.
Much of the remaining time is spent
in Kinshasa, a teeming, decaying city
of 3 million inhabitants on the banks of
the Congo River which is vital to the
resistance leaders as a staging post for
recruits, envoys and supplies.
WHILE ANGOLAN guerrillas inside
their country persistently harass Cuban
and government troops, their leaders
outside struggle for arms, supplies and
money as well as international
recognition.
Thenthird and smallest Angolan
movement, the Front for the Liberation
of Cabinda Enclave (FLEC), is beset
by leadership squabbles, launches few
effective military operations while
claiming to have 6,000 men and is
dismissed lightly by Western observers
here.
The 240-square-mile enclave that
FLEC seeks to liberate is, however,
vital to Angola and its anti-guerrilla
war. Gulf Oil Co. of the United States
pays the Luanda government $600
million annually to drill oil off Cabinda
and this foreign currency helps the
military budget.
FLEC COMMANDER Lt. Col. Mar-
celino Luemba, 35, says his guerrillas
have not attacked the oilfields, which
are heavily guarded by government
and Cuban troops.
Said Luemba: "We don't attack Gulf
because we do not want to anger
America."
Since Portugal granted independence
to Angola, the United States has had a
limited role and minimal influence in
the West African territory.
But the recent visit to Luanda by U.S.
deputy United Nations Ambassador
Donald McHenry suggests the Carter
administration is trying to nudge Neto's
government away from its almost total
dependence on the Soviet Union and
Cuba.
At the same time the FNLA continues
to make overtures to the United States,
which provided covert assistance to its
guerrillas during the colonial and civil
wars. Henrique Vaalneto, the FNLA
foreign minister, said he recently
returned from Washington where he
had a "very good" reception at the
State Department by officials he would
not identify. He said he also visited
church groups and congressmen.
by would not name them.
Ex-TA not
satisfied
with reply
(Continued from Page 3)
tion, she will testify at a special
Michigan Employment Relations
Commission (MERC) hearing
scheduled for August 14. Judge Shlomo
Sperka will hear testimony on whether
University graduate student assistants
(GSAs) should be considered as studen-
ts or employees. The latter
classification would allow 'them to
collectively bargain with the Univer-
sity.
Despite the work Schacknow had to
do to receive an answer from the
Univesity, she said she is happy she
made her case public.
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