Word: namibian
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...were waiting for the guerrillas. In the first large-scale clashes near the border town of Ruacana, 38 SWAPO guerrillas were mowed down by machine-gun fire, while two policemen were killed and 14 wounded. Elsewhere, the guerrillas fared little better. All told, at least 260 guerrillas and 28 Namibian security police were killed. UNTAG, which had less than one-fourth of its planned force on hand and barely 200 soldiers in the area of fighting, could do no more than look on ineffectually...
...SWAPO incursions allowed South Africa, which agreed to the independence plan only grudgingly, a rare opportunity to cry foul. Calling the violations a "grave situation," Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha warned that the Namibian peace process "could collapse within hours." Pretoria applied pressure on UNTAG's Finnish commander, Martti Ahtisaari, to reactivate some South African military forces and ordered others back to service on its own. Backed by Western public opinion for once, South Africa continued to threaten an end to the treaty. Declared Foreign Minister Botha: "SWAPO must surrender, lay down their arms, hoist a white flag...
Exiled SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma insisted that his men had already been inside the country, but his eleventh-hour bid to establish a military presence made little sense. Militarily, the guerrillas invited maximum reprisals by Namibian security forces that were all too ready and able to oblige. Politically, the bloody incursions gave the guerrillas' opponents ammunition to challenge their claim that they are the "sole and authentic" representative of Namibia's 1.25 million people...
...constructive engagement was an excuse for a stand-pat policy, a do-nothing policy," says Thompson Professor of Government Martin L. Kilson. But he says the plan has allowed the U.S. to mediate the recent Southern African peace settlement, which ties the withdrawal of Cuban troops in Angola with Namibian independence from South Africa...
...crucial round of talks at which a withdrawal timetable was worked out. SWAPO welcomed the accord but expressed doubts about South African intentions. The only guarantee of Pretoria's keeping its word after signing the agreement in New York, said a SWAPO official, is the "vigilance of the Namibian people...