February 19, 1986
President Decides to Send Weapons to Angola Rebels
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN, Special to the New York Times
The Reagan Administration told Congress today that it had decided to provide rebels in Angola with antiaircraft and antitank missiles.
The purpose, Administration officials say, is to prevent the Communist-backed Angolan Government from achieving ''a military solution.''
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chester A. Crocker, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, for the first time acknowledged publicly what had been unofficially reported - that there has been a basic Administration decision to provide covert military aid to the rebel forces led by Jonas Savimbi.
Money From C.I.A. Budget
The amount of aid is believed to be about $15 million and will be provided out of Central Intelligence Agency funds. The step does not need formal Congressional approval. The Senate and House intelligence committees have already been notified that the Administration intends to provide the aid, Congressional sources said.
Congress has the option of blocking such aid by majority votes, just as it had vetoed military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. But none of the senators at the hearing today indicated that they would introduce such legislation against the covert aid.
Mr. Crocker, despite confirming that the Administration had decided to provide aid to the Angolan rebels, seemed to suggest that the actual equipment had not been turned over to the rebels. Seeks Approval of Resolution
He called for Congress to approve a joint resolution that endorsed the idea of a diplomatic solution in southern Africa while making it clear that no party should be able to prevail militarily.
Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, chairman of the committee, has talked about such a resolution, which could serve as a kind of underpinning for the covert aid. But his aides said today that no decision had been made on whether to pursue such a resolution.
Mr. Crocker initially avoided any explicit statement on the covert aid, although he was questioned about it extensively. As its name implies, covert aid is not supposed to be openly discussed. But in recent years, particularly after the heated disputes over covert aid supplied to the rebels in Nicaragua, information about the assistance has been more or less publicly debated.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who questioned the value of military aid to the Savimbi forces, known by their initials as Unita, pressed Mr. Crocker for a firm answer on whether the decision to provide it had already been made.
''The decision has been made, and the process is in motion,'' Mr. Crocker said. ''I cannot go beyond that.''
Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, a strong supporter of the Savimbi cause, asked Mr. Crocker whether the aid would ''include weapons which are effective against the main threat to freedom fighters - I mean Soviet tanks, helicopter gunships.''
''Will this aid include the weapons that they really need to win?'' Mr. Helms asked.
''We want to be effective,'' Mr. Crocker replied, ''and that obviously covers the ground you have covered in your question.''
Little Faith in Military Solution
The thrust of Mr. Crocker's remarks, however, was that the Administration did not believe a military solution was desired or feasible in Angola. He said that even Mr. Savimbi, when he was in Washington last month, told the Administration that there was no possibility of an outright military victory.
The Administration has been seeking a diplomatic package agreement that includes the withdrawal of South African troops from South-West Africa, known as Namibia, parallel with the pullout of the Cuban troops from Angola. In addition, there would be an internal agreement in Angola between the Savimbi forces and the Government.
Last summer, Congress repealed a law that had banned secret aid to Angolan forces, leading to intense lobbying by conservative groups for the Administration to provide military aid. Several bills have been introduced in Congress for open financing of the rebels.
But the Administration has opposed open assistance to the rebels, preferring to keep its aid covert so as to make the Angolan Government uncertain about how much aid was going to its opponents.
Mr. Crocker stressed that the Administration viewed the aid to Mr. Savimbi's forces as helpful in putting pressure on the Angolan Government to be more forthcoming in negotiations and not as an end in itself.
''The point I am making, then,'' Mr. Crocker said, ''is that diplomacy requires to be effective a degree of pressures that drives the parties toward a political compromise. But pressures -pure physical power - does not in itself represent solutions, and in our analysis, cannot be effective in the absence of a meaningful political context. As Secretary Shultz has put it, it takes both power and diplomacy.''
The rebel forces control the southeastern part of Angola, and last summer successfully resisted a major military operation undertaken by Angolan Government forces. Mr. Crocker said the Angolan Government had received almost $2 billion in Soviet military aid in the last two years.
There are believed to be about 35,000 Cuban combat troops in Angola aiding the Government.
Mr. Crocker said the fighting last year had ''brought home to both sides the dangers of military escalation.''
He said that there had been important discussions recently with both the Angolans and the South Africans on the prospects for a negotiated solution but that ''we are not yet at the point of success.''