ITALY: SPOKESMAN SAYS NO FOREIGN TROOPS FIGHTING WITH FNLA IN ANGOLA, AND CHINA NO LONGER PROVIDING DIRECT AID.

Record ID: 376301

  • Title: ITALY: SPOKESMAN SAYS NO FOREIGN TROOPS FIGHTING WITH FNLA IN ANGOLA, AND CHINA NO LONGER PROVIDING DIRECT AID.
  • Date: 3rd December 1975
  • Summary: 1. GV ZOOM IN TO SCU FNLA spokesman Barreto (accompanied by Moyo) speaking in French 1.10 "Nous avons formes... .. Katangais." 2. GV Interviewer asking question 1.18 3. GV Barreto answering 2.00 "D'abord, ill n'y a... .. en Angola unis." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th December 1975 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAF3Z4OUCUCSVM8JA4A0EH550QA
  • Story Text: In an interview in Rome on Monday (1 December), a member of the Political Bureau of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), Mr. Jose Monteiro Barreto, said that there were no foreign troops fighting with FNLA for control of strife-torn Angola.

    Mr. Barreto was accompanied by another Political Bureau member, Mr. Paulo Daniel Moyo, who echoed his statement. Both men were in the Italian capital to attend last weekend's meeting of the World Movement of Christian Democrats.

    Speaking about the future of the war in Angola, Mr. Barrato made it clear that the movement would have preferred a peaceful solution to the problems of independence. But, he said, the rival Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) had consistently refused to negotiate a common platform, both under the auspices of the former Portuguese colonial government and the Organisation of African Unity (OUA).

    On the question of foreign involvement in Angola's civil war Mr. Barreto claimed that the MPLA was being reinforced by Soviet military aid and experts, some three thousand troops from Cuba, plus around four thousand former Katangese volunteers.

    As far as FNLA was concerned, he said, the movement was no longer receiving direct aid from China, merely full support. The Chinese government, he told VISNEWS reporter Ivor Gaber, had stopped all military aid when the date for independence -- November 11 -- was announced earlier this year.

    Denying further that FNLA was getting assistance from South Africa, he admitted that the movement's co-partner in the fight against MPLA, the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) did use South Africa troops.

    Mr. Barreto claimed that the joint FNLA-UNITA command now controlled about 80 per cent of Angola, but he estimated that the war would continue longer than it should because of the Soviet aid for MPLA.

    Film includes part of Mr. Barreto's interview with reporter Ivor Gaber, in French.
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