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by Rich Jefferson

In a much ballyhooed agreement


signed Dec. 22 in New York, South
Mrica agreed to remove its occupation
force from Namibia by Nov. 1, 1989.
South Africa also has promised to stop
funding Dr. Jonas Savimbi's organiza-
tion, the Union for the Total Inde-
pendence of Angola (UNIT A). The bad
news for UNIT A and South Africa is
that the Cubans occupying Angola have
until July 1, 1991, to withdraw. Not
surprisingly, this deal was worked out
by the United States State Department.
There are now 60,000 Cuban soldiers
in Angola, and 15,000 of those were
added since negotiations began in
earnest last year. The agreement says
that the United Nations will have a
whopping total of 70 "peace keeping
officers" and 20 civilians to monitor the
Cuban withdrawal. As J ardo Muekalia,
the United Nations observer for UNIT A
told the New York Times, "It's a big
country for 90 people to. verify the with-
drawal." Hold the kudos for American
diplomacy until it's clear South Mrica
is secure on its northwestern border.
fortunately South African foreign
Minister Roelof "Pik" Botha said pub-
licly Jan. 9 that the United Nations ob-
servers would have to verify a Cuban
withdrawal from Angola with some-
thing more believable than Cuban good-
will and honesty. A spokesman for the
U.N. team had earlier told the New
York Times "We will trust the informa-
tion given by (Cuba and Angola). It
would not be normal for two countries
to sign an agreement and not fulfill it."
Speaking on Namibian independence
and South Africa's own troop with-
drawal from southern Angola and N ami-
bia, Botl1a was quoted saying, "Should
any of the parties not fulfill their ob-
ligations, the whole series of interlock-
ing agreements reached in 1988 would
be endangered."
American conservatives are now say-
ing they're pleased with President
George Bush's recent "pledges" to stand
by Savimbi. Cuban troops have sup-
ported the communist dictatorship in
Luanda since 1975 when the Portugese
surrendered their colony to native Ango-
lans. That year, 1975, was the year the
United States showed Southeast Asians
how America stands by its allies. At
least Savimbi knows South Africa has
a better record of helping its friends and
hurting its enemies than does the
United States, which often gets it back-
wards.
Whether conservatives are right to be
pleased with Bush's statements depends
on whether they are hearing the side of
Bush that praises questionable civil
rights policies or hearing Bush speak as
the former head of the CIA. In a letter
dated Jan. 6, Bush assured Savirnbi that
American diplomacy "will continue to
encourage African and other interested
governments to provide maximum sup-
port to a process of negotiation leading
to national reconciliation in your coun-
try." Savimbi has been receiving $15
million a year in aid from the United
States, but thaes hardly sufficient for
UNIT A to build for a decisive victory
against Angola's Communist rulers and
all those Cuban soldiers with advanced
Soviet weaponry.
Angola is located north of Namibia
on Africa's Atlantic coast. It's coastline
has been called some of the most criti-
cal geostrategic real estate in the world.
Even if Cuban troops do withdraw from
Angola, Angola's Communist President
dos Santos has taken measures to pro-
tect his position by naturalizing thou-
sands of Cubans. Castro's cutthoats
now carry Angolan passports.
Remember that the new head of the
Republican National Committee, Lee
Atwater, wants to move blacks from
the Democratic fold into his party. If
the Bush people perceive that Savimbi,
with his South Mrican connection, is a
political liability in getting blacks to
change allegiances at home, Savimbi
could be left for dead as other American
allies have been in recent years.
Remember, too, how successful com-
munists of American birth have been in
forcing legitimate businesses to sever
all financial connections with South
Africa. As reported by Steven Powell in
"Covert Cadre," a 467 page 1987 publi-
cation about the anti-American and anti-
Christian Institute fot Policy Studies
(IPS), "American direct investment
(two years ago was) billion," and
that was only 1.5 of the foreign
investment in South 'Africa. According
to the comrades at'IPS, this investment
"assists the repressive regime." This
means that IPS wants more black unem-
ployment to create a revolutionary at-
mosphere. Powell says that multination-
al corporations can provide a "major
agent of liberalization" in a country
such as South Africa." Unlike politi-
ians whose flexibility is limited by the
desire to preserve power and the necessi-
ty to balance conflicting interests, prag-
matic businessmen understand that the
best guarantee of political stability, the
necessary condition for long-term econo-
mic prosperity, is equal political and
economic opportunity and the incen-
tives of upward mobility.
"Since 1977 nearly one hundred forty
of the three hundred fifty U.S. com-
panies doing business in South Africa
have voluntarily implemented a code of
conduct called the Sullivan Principles;
the code required desegregation, fair
employment practices, equal pay for
equal work, job training for advance-
ment, and promotion of nonwhites to
management and supervisory positions.
Today 70 percent of U.S.-employed
South Mrican blacks work under the
Sullivan Principles. Progress has been
made," Powell writes.
Randall Robinson, head of Trans-
(Continued on page 41)
Page30--------------------------------------------- The CounSel of Chalcedon, February-March, 1989
Frontline Fellowship
Continued from page 29
days because of the risk of capture, he
assured me that there are indigenous
pastors who are willing to follow
through on the converts and who super-
vise the distribution of the precious
Scriptures.
Never have I encountered more de-
voted missionaries of the cross than
these courageous young men, who,
after fighting together for their country
in combat, are now taking the Gospel
of the Prince of Peace to places where
most missionaries would be unable to
go and where no missionary could
possibly stay. They deserve our prayers
and our support.
[The Rev. Robert Slimp is a free-
lance writer in the P.CA. who has
travelled extensively. This article is
reprinted from the November-December,
1987 issue of Journey magazine. It is
used by permission.] D
John Knox
Continued from page 36
unconditionally. In this respect his in-
fluence on the Reformation is incalcu-
lable and finds magnificent expression
in the Scottish "Confession of Faith,"
Cap XIX:
" ... we affirm and avow the authority
of the same to be of God, and neither to
depend on men nor angels. We affirm
therefore that such as allege the Scrip-
ture to have no (other) authority, but
that which is received from the Kirk, to
be blasphemous against God, and injuri-
ous to the true Kirk, which always hear-
eth and obeyeth the voice of her own
Spouse and Pastor, but taketh not upon
her to be mistress over the same."
fThis article contains excerpts from Prof.
V.E. D'Assonville's chapter 11 in Calvinus
ReformaJor, Potchefstroom University for
Cnristian Higher Education, 1982, Potchef-
stroom, Soutli Africa.] 0
JOHNCAU'IN
News Briefs
Continued from page 30
Africa, an organization supporting Com-
munist dictatorship in the third world is
a leading voice in the uproar over divest-
ment in South Africa. He too favors
revolutionary action to overthrow the
South African government. Robinson
does not like Savimbi, and he said this
about the Dec. 22 accord signed by
South Africa, Angola and Cuba: "If the
settlement actually comes off, Chester
Crocker will have produced fruit from a
very barren source and will deserve ku-
dos for a major effort."
Chester Crocker, an assistant secre-
tary of state, who is soft on commun-
ism, has been working on an agreement
such as the one mentioned above for
years. The question asked by Human
Events, "The National Conservative
Weekly," is "Can this pact be so sound
if this bosom buddy of Red revolution-
aries (Robinson) appears so content?"
The Soviet Union is very interested
in South Africa because of the country's
geostrategic position. Gorbachev, as
other Communist USSR leaders before
him, wants to run the world. A report
published in a Washington, D.C., news-
paper Dec. 26, shows that Moscow
doesn't care as much about communist
doctrine as much as furthering world
conquest. The Soviets have been im-
pressing some South African officials
and making friends because of osten-
sible changes in the communist sys-
tem.
To summarize what has been hap-
pening between South Africa and the
Soviet Union, a spokesman for the
South African Department of Foreign
Affairs said, "We have made a com-
parison of Soviet and American press
reports in recent months, and it makes
interesting reading. While the American
press, as a whole, continues to high-
light apartheid and the grievances of the
black population, the Soviet press is
running articles on South Africa that
are mainly informative. If you had told
me two years ago that we sould be
; getting a more objective press from
Russia than from America, I would
. never have believed it."
Three terrorists, members of the Afri-
can National Congress, were sentenced
in Cape Town Jan. 16 for planting land-
mines on white-owned farms in
Swaziland. The mastermind of the
scheme was Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, a
South African Indian. That is an appro-
priate middle name for a terrorist (Gen.
16:11, 12). Ebrahim was sentenced to
20 years in prison, but the judge said he
had "strong moral qualities." Whatever
these strong moral qualities may be,
they don't apply to marriage. He has a
common-law wife named Julie Wells.
The tragic part of this trial was not
that more terrorists will take up cell
space in South Africa. According to one
report, a Deputy Chief State Prose-
cutor, Louise van der Walt, showed her
extremist sympathies after the verdict
was handed down. The convicted men
went to their cells, the blacks in the
gallery started to sing, and Mrs. Van der
Walt raised her hand in the salute of the
Afrikaaner Resistance Movement. Ebra-
him and his comrades had aimed to kill
when they planted the mines, and Mrs.
Vander Walt was right to demand the
death penalty for the terrorists.
But she certainly didn't enhance the
credibility of her correct commitment to
proper criminal penalties with this
apalling action. Ori the other hand, she
too has a point when she asks her
colleagues in the courtroom, "Why do
you have to shut me up while others
are allowed to sing?" This event under-
scores the need for Christians not to
choose between the two false options
concerning South Africa. When both
sides are wrong, we must not be afraid
to say so. D
Join us
in the
Worship of God
<CllMnJI.tred(Q)mt

<Clhl1U1flCllil
(Corner Roberts Dr. & Spalding Dr.,
one-half mile south of Northridge exit
off highway 400)
North Dunwoody, Georgia
The Counsel of Chalcedon, 1989
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