Right Is Wrong on Africa

U.S. foreign policy in Southern Africa is taking some constructive steps in two critical nations, Angola and Mozambique, despite efforts of the radical right in the United States to convert the problems into cold-war issues.

American officials have now resumed negotiations with the leadership of Angola--with a meeting scheduled in Luanda at the end of the month for Chester Crocker, assistant secretary of state for Africa. There is a possibility that a new plan to end the crippling guerrilla war and clear the way for the exit of the 37,000 Cuban troops there may be in the making. That would be a welcome step. The American peace efforts are not helped, however, by a move in Congress to impose a trade embargo and by the Reagan Administration’s continued support, at the level of about $15 million a year, of Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA guerrillas.

In Mozambique the Reagan Administration has demonstrated even more strength and consistency--establishing diplomatic relations, providing massive food aid in response to the spreading famine generated by warfare, and resisting pressures from the right to establish contacts with Renamo, the opposition force leading the war of devastation against the Mozambique government.

The American radical right, curiously encouraged by Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) in his quest for the White House, has been trying to isolate the governments of Angola and Mozambique. Ostensibly this is because they are Marxist and maintain ties with Moscow. As a matter of fact, both nations also maintain close relations with the West, clearly demonstrating that they are not puppets of the Soviet Union. Beyond that ideological drive, many of the rightists in the United States have an affection for the white rulers of South Africa and cannot be blind to the fact that they are faithfully serving Pretoria’s cause by disrupting these two nations and others in the region. One congressional group, for example, in the guise of ending “necklacing” assassinations in South Africa, is trying to cut out all American aid to any nation that harbors the African National Congress--the outlawed but highly popular opposition organization of South Africa. It is an unfair move that at once ignores South Africa’s own brutal repression of the black majority while making it appear that the ANC had in fact sanctioned the brutal killings.

A new Southern Africa is developing, slowly but surely. It is a region of importance in many ways, including its strategic position and its rare resources. The United States can play a role in the future there only if it maintains vigorous opposition to South Africa’s prolongation of apartheid, South Africa’s aggressive armed actions against neighboring states, and South Africa’s continued refusal to grant independence to Namibia, the last of the continent’s colonies.

The new American initiatives to negotiate with Angola and to feed and develop Mozambique recognize those realities and should be encouraged. Those in Congress who seek to sabotage those efforts are unwitting tools of South Africa and of a policy doomed, as are all racist and colonialist policies, to failure.