Word: botswana
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...late May, South African commandos made a foray into Angola. Then, two weeks ago, South African troops attacked what they claimed were strongholds of African National Congress guerrillas in Botswana, killing at least twelve people. Last week another furor erupted over the Botha government's installation of a quasi-independent administration in South-West Africa, or Namibia, the neighboring territory that South Africa has controlled for the past 19 years in defiance of United Nations resolutions calling for independence for the area. Botha's remarks seemed specifically aimed at Washington, whose relations with Pretoria are at their lowest ebb since...
Early one morning late last week a band of South African army commandos moved furtively through the streets of Gaborone, Botswana's capital, five miles from the South African border. Spreading out in small groups through the city of 60,000, they struck at nine homes and an office, ripping through doors and windows with automatic-rifle fire and hand grenades. Their targets: members of the African National Congress, the main guerrilla organization opposed to South Africa's policy of apartheid. According to the South Africans, the 35- min. attack left 13 ANC guerrillas dead. At least two other people...
...attack came less than a month after nine South African commandos were ambushed, and one captured, during a clandestine foray into Angola. It showed South Africa's determination to continue hitting foreign ANC bases, even in nominally friendly countries like Botswana, in defiance of international opinion. Already angered by the Angola raid, Washington reacted to the Botswana adventure by calling U.S. Ambassador Herman Nickel home for "consultations," a gesture intended to show extreme displeasure. State Department Spokesman Bernard Kalb declared that the two incidents raised "the most serious questions" about South Africa's recent actions. The U.S. response, the angriest...
General Constand Viljoen, head of the South African Defense Force, accused the ANC of carrying out dozens of terrorist acts in South Africa from bases in Botswana. He said the organization was planning an assassination campaign against government officials and black and mixed-race moderates. The South African raid resembled a 1982 attack on ANC bases in Lesotho and later operations against guerrillas in Mozambique. South African officials contend that the guerrillas regrouped in Botswana and Angola after being driven from Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho. Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha said that South Africa had warned Botswana repeatedly about harboring...
...Botswana rejected South African claims that the dead were ANC guerrillas, referring to them instead as "South African refugees." It has accused South Africa of trying to bring pressure on Botswana to sign a formal nonaggression treaty similar to the ones it now has with Swaziland and Mozambique. Last week's raid also appeared to be designed to cause maximum embarrassment to the ANC just before the organization's planned weekend "summit" meeting at an undisclosed location in southern Africa, where the rebels were expected to plan their future campaign against the South African government...