Foreign Minister Pik Botha has run head-long into an embarrassing fiasco over the use of intercepted radio messages described by Untag as ”crude forgeries”. United Nations secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar said last night that the cables -used by Botha to claim that Swapo guerrillas were invading northern Namibia – were forgeries and South Africa was aware of this. Untag representatives described the situation in northern Na¬mibia as ”exceptionally calm”.
Western diplomatic sources have rejected the claims that Swapo guerillas had crossed the border, while confirming that there are a number of Swapo guerillas south of the 16th parallel in southern Angola. General Jannie Geldenhuys, the chief of the South African Defence Force, yesterday morning concentrated on the claims that Swapo were massed on the border and made no mention of crossing the border. Botha said on Wednesday night that Swapo military activities included incursions across the border.
However, Botha said yesterday that he hoped he was ”wrong and the information is not correct.” Speaking at a seminar on South Africa and the International Community, he said it would ”be better if they were not true.” Perez de Cuellar said, however, that ”our experts saw them (the messages) in the presence of the South Africans and they both agreed they were forgeries.” Untag, it is believed, will be pushing for a full retraction from the South Africans. The cables were said to have been intercepted between October 23 and October 31 from United Nations forces monitoring the election. Botha said it was Untag’s job to prevent Swapo incursions, but that they were not doing their job.
Untag spokesman Fred Eckhart pointed out that the UN did not use internal communications for the transmission of super-sensitive material such as that contained in Botha’s allegations. ”It emerged yesterday that Botha had not checked the information before his Wednesday press conference with Untag or even his own administrator-general in Windhoek, Louis Pienaar. At a press conference yesterday, Pienaar said he had no prior knowledge of the documents or what Botha was going to say. The ”intelligence gathering operation” that produced the documents had not taken place under his authority.
Asked if this meant that the South Africans had been conducting intelligence operations illegally, Pienaar said this question should be put to Botha. If the documents which Botha waved around so forcefully were forgeries, who made them and passed them on to him? If there are elements within the government who would give tampered information to their own Foreign Minister, what was their motive? If Botha has been duped by forgeries compiled by members of his own government, his position is untenable. The evidence Botha produced is an interesting mix of content which was intercepted and blended with disinformation.
However, it Jacks key procedural codes, and the format is incorrect. Untag keeps records of all communications of the sort Botha was claiming to have intercepted. The evidence points to a militarily sophisticated, experienced and well equipped source based close to the Angolan border. Diplomatic sources are speculating that Botha could have been attempting to pre-empt a repeat of the April 1 incursions by Swapo by putting the Untag forces on their guard. At the same time, it renders much more difficult any potential military action by Swapo after the election, as this would vindicate Pretoria’s claims. In a statement which seemed to allow for the possibility that the documents were forgeries, Botha said yesterday: ”If the publicity leads to no further activities (by Swapo) it would have served its purpose.”
However, the outburst on the eve of the election has aroused the suspicions of African states who have nev¬er been fully convinced that South Africa is genuine about allowing free and fair elections in Namibia. It has also raised fears that the ”securocrats” in the government – those verkramptes who oppose the glasnost of President FW de Klerk, but who have been sidelined since the retirement of PW Botha – are fighting back. Although sources close to De Klerk are confident that the securocrats cannot threaten him, the most likely source for Botha’s allegations must be military intelligence or the National Intelligence Service.
The fears that these people are trying to stage a comeback to power were fuelled by two other unexpected developments this week that seem to go against the current glasnost: the warning of a pending suspension of the New Nation newspaper, and the apparent clampdown on rebel policeman Lieutenant Gregory Rockman. Botha’ s move has increased ten¬sions in an election which, coming after a lengthy guerilla war, has faced a number of bedevilling factors including the April 1 incursions by Swapo, clashes between Swapo and DTA supporters, the long-running Koevoet issue, the assassination of Anton Lubowski and the question of the murder and disappearance of Swapo detainees.
Botha’s claims are also likely to have damaged the pro-South African Democratic Turnhalle Alliance. Dirk Mudge of the DTA said yesterday that the announcement was ”more or Jess equal to intimidation” because the im¬pression had been created that Swapo had a strong military presence on the border. Botha said yesterday, however, that the South African government was prepared to accept the outcome of the election, and in this spirit he had recently met Swapo leader Sam Nujoma. He said close co-operation with the government of Namibia was essential – Phillip van Niekerk and Sue Brown
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail
