Word: namibia
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...fought, a country that, strategically, is essential to the free world in its production of minerals." European allies are already afraid that the U.S., in the name of antiCommunism, may forge closer relations with the apartheid regime. That might lead the Pretoria government to continue stalling on independence for Namibia, slow any liberalization of apartheid laws hi South Africa and stir substantial anti-U.S. sentiment throughout black Africa. Haig's aides insist that no policy has been set and that the Secretary fully understands that the issue is too complex to be seen in simple East-West terms...
...military, economic, and diplomatic support should be withdrawn from South Africa, Mary Anderson, director of Radcliffe's Bunting Institute, said. She added that the U.S. should vote against South African intervention in Namibia in an upcoming United Nations resolution...
Like most of the guerrillas, 46% of the population belongs to the Ovambo tribe. In addition, most of Namibia's 1 million inhabitants are clustered within 20 miles of the long Angolan border. Thus it is exceedingly difficult for South African troops to distinguish enemy guerrillas from the local populace. Yet on paper, the South Africans seem to have the war under control. Their claimed "kill ratio" over the past two years: a phenomenal 3,343 SWAPO dead compared with 72 South Africans. Such lopsided figures are vigorously disputed by SWAPO...
...idea of a U.N. ceasefire proposal that would replace them with 5,000 peace-keeping troops. Says one officer: "Five thousand men haven't got a hope in hell of monitoring a ceasefire. Before the last South African soldier was back across the border, SWAPO would be in Namibia." However, crossing the Angolan border at will, as South Africa has been doing, could backfire. Third World frustration over Pretoria's failure to make concessions at Geneva has generated renewed demands by black African nations like oil-rich Nigeria for international sanctions against South Africa. The call...
Some 850 Bushmen are organized into a separate battalion of the South West Africa Territory Force headquartered at Omega, a base camp in Namibia's northeastern Caprivi Strip. Assigned on a rotating basis to South African fighting units, the traditionally unwarlike Bushmen have distinguished themselves in combat. Five have been killed; one was posthumously awarded the Honoris Crux, one of the highest military decorations. Their tracking skills have introduced a new element to the counterinsurgency tactics. "They have fantastic eyesight," says a South African lieutenant, "and they can navigate in the bush without a compass or map." The Bushmen...