total war.
By Our Foreign Staff TWO scenes last week heralded a new pnase in te pontical situation — a murderous air TENE into Angola and stage-managed tearful performance from lan Smith at the 1S001 all-white On 26 February British-built Canberra bombers bombed an alleged Patriotic Front near Luso in Angola. were widespread reports that South African Mirage jets, with THE Rhodesian attack on Angola last week shows just how dangerous imperialist domination of Africa is.
Amin regime in Uganda shows how imperialism still either Rhodesian African pilots, were on standby in Northern Namibia in case the mission was discovered prematurely.
The second event to some extent explains te Tirst. It Is just that sentimentally attached to white rule. The problem is that his plan to transfer power to camp stration is looking less and less There likely to succeed.
This substantial escalation of the war to Angola is an attempt to raise the military stakes and, at some point, outside intervention.
Foreier Owen WAS government missions of this sort will only sharpen the conflict...and can only bring nearer the point at which an all-out war engulfs the whole region.
South His right. Unfortunately, however, role government in such a conflict WOLEHOL suggests, be on the side of the Zimbabwean Smith people.
Ian Smith knows very well that any imperialist involvement would be in favour of neo-colonial rule and, if it came to the crunch, of his white settler regime too.
Already Rhodesia has mounted a sustained campaign of northexplanations syphilitic tions as a 'front-line state' in - is not the The Mozambican government, south of This for example, said: "The current aggression by regime is part of an imperialist bourgeois strategy against peoples who could be independent.' The second which is more easily supportable, is that the intention was of to dissuade Julius Nyerere's Tanzanian government from aiding exile guerillas supporting the liberal Obote.
to provoke Secretary *The Deneyes understanding is dead Salemen and Angolan Amin (left with vice-president Adrisi before they fell out Obote.
COUNCIL situation in Uganda. the Ugandan critical.
explanation, whether an whole regime on such a basis September loyal marines Castro in Angola — bolstering Cuba's aid against South African aggression against its neighbour Mozambique. Two more air raids in the past fortnight underline Mozambican governambushed ment that the and only COLD The third and basic reason object for the attack is the internal The crisis in the army, on which Amin's rule depends, is particularly Expenditure The confusion over the battle for Masaka last week is just one drain. example, when it was unclear Cente Dro-AmIl regiment had taken the town boom. from the rebels or joined them! exporter Amin thoroughly purged the army after the 1971 coup which brought him to power. He frost transformed it into something resembling a mercenary band, with British advisers at the top.
By recruiting from minority tribes and religions he isolated it from the population as a 1977.
Institutionalised political murder was Amin's style of government. Despite the vast network of patronage, it was impossible to build a stable Inevitably splits have emer- 1977, ged. The most important, and exported, the one which seems to have triggered the whole current crisis, was between Amin and Vice President Mustafa Adrisi.
While not opposing military rule, Adrisi wanted to let up on suffered repression. He is now in exile in repression, Amin sent to responsible pro-Adrisi garrisons to restore order. In each case the rebels they ment warnings that there is now a danger of total war.
In the course of the civil war against imperialist domination, got wind of Amin's plans and and defeated the lovalists. This was the occasion for Amin's initial announceTanzanian troops had attacked southern Uganda - which was obvious nonsense signal for further army rebellions.
But, far from easing tension, disastrou Wal Tanzania has only worsened Amin's position. He has now fallen out with General Gowon Brigadier Malyamungu, the top army leaders and the two remaining coconspirators from the They were foolish enough to Amin's COLCHILI military tactics and now find themselves on indefinite leave.
Behind the political crisis in the army lies the catastrophic state of the Ugandan economy.
on the armed forces has been a constant Things have got even worse with the end of the coffee As a major coffee Uganda benefitted from the rise in world coffee prices after the 1975 Brazilian Amin characteristically used racist the extra revenue to bump up spending on the army, without any thought for what would happen when the world market returned to normal, as it did in . The already crisis-stricken state of the economy meant that the black market became the normal method of export. For example, of the 12,600 tons of Arabic coffee produced i only 2,500 tons wa the rest being smuggled out of the country.
The Ugandan masses have eight years with a steadily worsening economy. Amin's Them military opponents are the ones for extravagant that military spending and it was who carried out the South Africa invaded southern Angola and the radical MPLA government called in Cuban troops to help drive them out.
Since the war the new regime has been the subject of repeated attacks, both open and covert.
The French and US governments finance the right-wing UNITA guerillas in the south of In 1976 the MPLA un covered the imperialistsponsored Operation Piano Cobra 77, aimed at attacking from north and south. And then in May 1978 South African troops and planes massacred 600 Namibians at Cassinga southern Angola.
Only last November, on the eve of the anniversary independence, bomb exploded in the central market at Huambo, killing wounding 60.
repression.
But when Uganda's rulers fall out among themselves there are new opportunities in the struggle for democratic rights Amin doomed. It unlikely that Tanzanian regular troops have any intention of staying in Uganda, since this unwanted war has already se back the slow recovery of the Tanzanian economy. The main danger is likely to come from Israeli intelligence put Amin in power with the backing of Britain and the United States -and has boasted about it since.
The British Tory government was delighted at the disappear ance of the 'pinko' Obote (who at that moment was their guest Commonwealth conference) and became the first to recognise Amin.
But Amin proved troubleWhat worried the West more than his mental instability was the political instability caused by his excesses. He broke off links with Israel and established them instead with the Soviet Union and Gadaffi's Libya It was only then that the propaganda barrage began in the Western press carefully overlooking the fact that Amin's police continued to be trained in the US and a weekly 'whisky run" Kampala still left Stanste airport In 1976 Israel, with South African aid, violated Ugandan territory impunity Entebbe, and in 1977 the US began threatening invasion. even sending an aircraft carrier to the East African coast. That remains the central danger.
It is impossible to predict the outcome HERE present ferment, except to say that only they are exceptionally unlucky will the Ugandans have another Amin visited upon Their worry should be the will manoeuvring to find a more amenable replacement.
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Ian Smith may try to push the continent to the brink of And elsewhere in the continent, the crisis of the
imposes its misery after the departure of the white rulers. Amin is the subject of grotesque racist carica- tures from the very people who put him in power.