SA's allies still bear scars of Pretoria's wrath

[dArKeR]

South Africa's neighbours who formed an anti-apartheid alliance and sheltered black liberation groups bear deep scars from a backlash by the former white racist regime in Pretoria whose stint in power ended a decade ago.

Between 1975 and 1980 six nations -- Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe -- teamed up to form a body called the Frontline States to aid the liberation movements in South Africa and Namibia.

The price they paid was dear -- ranging from acts of aggression and destabilisation like simultaneous military raids in the Zambian, Zimbabwean and Botswanan capitals on May 19, 1986 -– to covert support to rebel movements in Angola and Mozambique.

A casualty of apartheid outside the borders of South Africa who has lived to tell his experiences is Zimbabwe's former cabinet minister Kumbirai Kangai -- a member of the ruling Zanu-PF party's supreme decision making body, the politburo.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33146