AFRICAN REBELS IN ANGOLA

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 15

AFRICAN REBELS IN ANGOLA

“ Portuguese Preparing For Extermination”

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

LONDON, May 3. The Portuguese in Angola were preparing to launch a calculated war of extermination against the terrorist uprising in the north, the “Daily Telegraph” reported. In a dispatch sent from Leopoldville to avoid censorship it said: “Among both white civilians and troops there is a rising tide of hatred against the Angolan African population.

“It has been provoked by terrorist atrocities against ■Portuguese settlers. ‘.‘During the week-end a white mob in the modern European quarter of Luanda slaughtered two Africans suspected of being terrorists from the north. “The Africans were walking down the main street when a Portuguese shouted: 'Those are the ones who killed my wife and family.’ “A screaming mob of refugee settlers and poor whites immediately gave chase, caught one of the Africans and beat him to death. “The second African fled into an office block, where the mob seized him on the roof three floors up and flung him to death. Police did nothing to stop them. “Last night Portuguese troops raided the African township of St. Paolo, on the outskirts of Luanda. “The Africans resisted with knives and 33 of them were shot dead. “Guns and other military equipment are being unloaded from a Portuguese freighter. The first of three troopships is lying off Luanda. “The land and air offensive against the rebels is due to start next month. ‘“We will hunt the terrorists down like game.’ a Portuguese Air Force officer said. ‘We have no alternative but extermination. The United Nations can protest as much as it likes but it will make no difference.’

“The Portuguese authorities are making no secret of their plans. As a preliminary they are blasting African villages with rockets, machineguns and napalm to drive the Africans into the bush. “Those who try to break out will be shot. Those who remain in hiding will die of thirst and starvation.” the “Daily Telegraph” report said. Two other British newspapers. the “Daily Mail” and the “Daily Mirror" today earned similar reports of mob violence and war preparation. The “Daily Mirror" report quoted an Army officer as saying: “I estimate that we’ve killed 30.000 of these animals (Africans).” The report said that for the Portuguese to achieve their extermination objective during the dry season would mean 1000 killings a day.

The “Daily Mirror” report said the correspondent had said to a Portuguese of importance: "Since you were the first whites in Africa, I suppose you will be the lasv to leave?” The man replied: “You are quite mistaken. We are not leaving.” In London last night, a Baptist minister who spent two years in Angola told a huge congregation of Baptists of atrocities committed by both Portuguese and Africans. The minister, the Rev. Clifford Parson, said that each night the Portuguese secret police broke into houses and dragged Africans into the streets, where they were shot A spirit of hatred existed in Angola of a type he had never experienced before, he said. The coloured people had risen up. armed with sticks and pruning knives and had attacked Portuguese settlements, killing women and children, he said. He said that reprisals on an even greater scale had followed from the Portuguese and thousands of coloured people had been slaughtered and mutilated. Portuguese secret police, he said, used a recipe of beatings and solitary confinement in a narrow cupboard to obtain signed statements. Reuter reported from Luanda that terrorists were said to have launched several attacks in northern Angola last night, but were repelled with heavy losses. One attack was on the village of Mucaba. which was saved from terrorists last Sunday by a strafing plane. Terrorists, armed with rifles, suffered many dead in last night’s attack but none of the villagers were hurt. Twenty African workers were killed by terrorists at a farm near Cajmona, on the road to Quitexe.