WORLD

Pretoria’s role seen in
death of Samora Machel

The death of Mozambique
President Samora Moises Machel
in a plane crash Oct. 19 over
South African territory has given
rise to suspicions that Pretoria
may have been responsible.
Machel, 53, was returning from a
Visit to Lusaka, Zambia, when his
aircraft crashed shortly before ar-
riving at Maputo airport.

A government communique
said the tragedy coincided with a
South African campaign against
Mozambique and pointed out that
two days earlier, South Africa’s
Defence Minister, Magnus Malan
had ominously predicted the col-
lapse of the Machel government.
It charged the unprecedented

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campaign was to prepare the
ground for attacking Maputo and
assassinating the president.

Before Machel’s | death
Mozambique had been reporting
heavy South African troop and
tank formations along its border
and a sharp increase in cargo
planes supplying some 20,000
South African-backed bandits in-
side the country. It also charged
that South African helicopters
have been transporting the
Mozambiquan counter-revo-
lutionary forces to the country’s
southern areas.

The South African press,
Mozambique says, openly writes
about an inevitable attack against
the Machel government saying it
must chose between ‘‘peace and
confrontation”. The Botha re-
gime’s campaign is based on the

|. lie that Mozambique is a forward

base for ANC attacks against
apartheid, in reality a pretext for
regular raids against Mozambique
which are part of Pretoria’s on-go-
ing war against neighboring front
line states.

Added to this external aggres-
sion which has cost the Mozam-
bique economy $5.5-billion in the
past several years, Pretoria has
now added a wide series of eco-
nomic sanctions, and open milit-

President Samora Machel

tragic loss’’ the African National
Congress of South Africa said
Mozambique, which wrested its
independence from Portuguese
colonialism in 1975 after pro-
tracted armed struggle, has never
known a moment’s peace.
‘‘Mozambique and other coun-
tries in the region are subjected to
an unrelenting campaign of
sabotage and destabilization by
Pretoria. The latest threats
against Mozambique, uttered
only days before this tragedy by
South Africa’s racist Defence
Minister serves to strengthen our

ie

Vikings score big victory

as Rambo flees Copenhagen |

This intriguing report by Rob Prince writing in the U.S. Peoples
Daily World Oct. 3, shows how creative the struggle for peace can get.
Abridged.

Poor Rambo!

He might be rewriting the history of the Vietnam war on the
screen, but this muscle-bound figment of the Pentagon’s imagina-
tion didn’t fare too well on a recent visit to Denmark.

Sylvester Stallone and his Danish wife came to Copenhagen for
a vacation, and in a style befitting his well-known modesty, he
flew in on his private Boeing 727 with ‘Rambo /’’ markings on the
outside. The Stallones then booked a suite of rooms in the exclu-
sive Hotel d’ Angleterre in the city’s centre,

That night the plane’s emblem was transformed from “‘Rambo
I’ to ‘‘Ho Chi Minh Air’ by unknown assailants. The next night
was even worse.

Thousands of Danish youth congregated outside of Stallone’s
hotel and sang folk songs — all night!

What Stallone failed to grasp is that an old Danish tradition was
being played out especially for him. The Hotel d’ Angleterre was
the seat of the nazi Gestapo in Denmark during the occupation.
During that time, it became part of the anti-fascist tradition to go
by the hotel and sing Danish folk songs to remind the invaders
that Danish culture and the Danish national identity were very
much alive.

In the middle of the night Stallone called police and asked fora
special escort to the airport and to his spiritually damaged, yet
functioning jet ... and to freedom. ,

Stallone should have realized who he was dealing with. These
dangerous Danes recently struck a blow at none other than the
USS Iowa when the _nuclear-bearing warship docked at
Copenhagen. A group of the Danish peace mMOvement’s crack

Mozambique independence: June
25, 1975.

ary invasion threats.
Calling Machel’s death “‘a

suspicion that Pretoria bears full
responsibility.”

frogmen disguised as female tourists infiltrated the shi
ped banners with peace doves over the railings, hi and crop

On September 7, 1986 the *‘September 4th’’ com-
mando unit of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front
(FPMR), which consists of some active and some retired
members of the Chilean armed forces, ambushed Gen-
eral Pinochet's retinue on the outskirts of Santiago in a
surprise attack. Five of the dictator’s bodyguards were
killed, but Pinochet's armoured car succeeded in escap-
ing to one of his several bunkers. The FPMR commando
squad then disappeared into the capital city, crossing
both police and military barricades with vehicles dis-
guised as part of Pinochet's convoy.

On Sept. 10 the FPMR issued a public statement say-
ing ‘Our action was intended to get rid of the dictator. It
was fully justified in the eyes of the Chilean people, both
military and civilian, who see Pinochet as the main obs-
tacle to a return to democracy.

“Chile and the world know that Pinochet grabbed
power by bombing the presidential palace and killing its
constitutional president and his colleagues. During these
13 years of dictatorship, thousands of Chileans have
been murdered, have disappeared, have had their
throats cut, been dynamited and burned.

“Pinochet's criminal hand has also murdered people
outside Chile’s borders, such as the cases of General
Carlos Prats and Orlando Letelier. We believe there
exists in Chile today full moral justification for the killing
of this tyrant.”

A Legitimate Struggle

For its part, the Communist Party of Chile also stated
publicly: *‘The present regime is a product of violence
and has maintained itself through violence ... Torture
and crimes are a systematic and daily practice of the
dictatorship up to this very moment. In each protest
march the regime kills hundreds of Chileans. Hunger,
misery and unemployment have added to the despera-
tion and anguish of millions of our people. Under such
conditions, no one should be surprised that there are
Chileans who consider it legitimate to fight this tyranny
by resorting to violent means ...””

Since publication of the fraudulent Pinochet constitu-
tion in 1980, opposition to the regime has taken different
forms. The bourgeois political parties, with the Christian
Democrats at the head, have been calling for a national
protest — a complete mobilization of the people with a
view to establishing a dialogue with the armed forces and
Pinochet. These center-right parties have also counted

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 29, 1986

News Backgrounder

A. Alard

on the unqualified support of the upper echelon of the
Catholic church.

But Pinochet has systematically rejected dialogue, has
stepped up the repression, occupied the country militar-
ily and divided the opposition.

The Communist Party has, since 1980, put forward the
people’s right to rebellion and their right to use all forms
of struggle, including work stoppages and acts of vio-
lence to destabilize the regime.

Together with other popular parties of the Chilean left,
the Communists also agree with the Popular Democratic
Movement’s (MDP) plan for an advance towards demo-
cracy which defends the fundamental interests of the
Chilean people, not by proposing any dialogue with
Pinochet, but by searching for points of view in common
with the forces that make up the Democratic Alliance.
However, in six years, this goal is as yet unrealized due
to the position of the bourgeois parties which make up
the Alliance and who stand against any united action in
which Marxist-Leninist parties, some of whom are part
of the MDP, participate.

Washington’s Dilemma
Any analysis of the Chilean situation cannot ignore the
United States’ position. It was Yankee imperialism
which brought about the military coup against the Popu-
lar Unity government of Salvador Allende in 1973 — and
it has not stopped its aid to Pinochet in the past 13 years.

This dictatorship is the best guardian of U.S. interests
in Chile and Washington has been unable to find a way to
counter the growing national and international isolation
of the regime.

Reagan knows he cannot handle the situation by sim-
ply shuffing generals. He also knows that a center-right
solution is no guarantee of the defence of imperialism’s
interests, because he knows that the popular movement
in Chile, with the Communist Party at the head, plays a
far different role than that of some other countries. Says
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs, Elliot Abrams: ‘‘There is no question that the
Communists are a significant force in Chile, representing

something like one-quarter of the electorate. That's
really a problem.”

Changing Situation

Since the attempt on Pinochet's life there have been
substantial changes in the country. Not one government
condemned the assassination effort, but there has been
severe international condemnation of increased repres-
sion against the people.

The U.S. has been forced to threaten to cut off
Pinochet's international credit if he does not permit
changes toward democracy. But we know these siren
songs only have credibility in certain sectors of North
American society. We all know how imperialism acts
when its profits are threatened.

In recent days Pinochet has retired two generals
known for their independent views and named General
Humberto Gordon head of Chile’s secret police, the
CNI, thus showing his determination to impose his own
vision of the future on Chile.

The reasons, then, for the CPC decision not to talk
with Pinochet, but to rid the country of the dictatorship
become clearer each day. The call to popular rebellion of
six years ago is now fully echoed by the people them-
selves, and the intense struggle developing in which the
people face tyranny on all sides, is something the
communists and their allies must strongly support.

Pinochet and imperialism cannot offer a democratic
solution. The parties representing the Chilean
bourgeoisie see how their efforts to isolate the commu-
nists and members of the MDP have failed. They also see
how their proposals have been repeatedly rejected by
Pinochet who keeps himself in power by sheer terror,
repression and with U.S. aid.

The Communist Party communique issued since the
Sept. 7 attempt against Pinochet says ‘‘The dictator has
once again hung the country with a state of siege which
he uses especially against communists because we are
the main enemy of this ominous, despotic regime.

‘*However, there is no doubt he also directs this fire
against all democratic forces, but neither a state of siege
nor war which Pinochet threatens against the people will
prevent his defeat and a return to democracy. Contrary
to what Pinochet says, the dilemma is not ‘dictatorship
or chaos’ or ‘dictatorship or Marxism’ — the choice is
dictatorship or democracy.”

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Chile’s difficult path toward democracy

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