NCJ Number
92620
Date Published
1982
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This report highlights testimony given in Senate subcommittee hearings on Soviet, East German, and Cuban involvement in terrorism in southern Africa, particularly their influence in the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) and the African National Congress (ANC).
Abstract
The ANC was founded in 1912 and developed close ties with the South African Communist Party (SACP) following World War II. In 1958, the African nationalist faction in the ANC, unwilling to tolerate manipulation by the SACP, broke away and founded the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). While the subcommittee could find no evidence of Soviet infiltration of the PAC, recent developments suggest that the ANC is still dominated by the SACP. SWAPO was created in 1960, but its origins go back to the Ovambo Peoples' Congress founded in Cape Town in 1957. SWAPO began a campaign of guerilla warfare in Namibia in 1962. However, it had two wings: an external one which conducted the guerilla activities and an internal, less radical one devoted to peaceful political activities. Both groups had internal factions, and rifts in the external wing erupted into open conflict in 1979. SWAPO leaders are poorly schooled and uneducated, but their revised 1979 constitution reflected Marxist principles. The Soviet doctrine of national democratic revolution is well known and was taught to the former SWAPO and ANC members who testified before the subcommittee. Moreover, leaders of both organizations have repeatedly acknowledged the importance of Soviet support, and Soviet theoreticians have commented on the significance of the African liberation movements to the worldwide communist movement. Evidence presented at the hearings strongly suggests that the Soviet Union has effective control over both SWAPO and ANC. Excerpts from the testimony and a list of witnesses are included.