Ik kwam trouwens dit artikel tegen (voor de liefhebber):
Helping Decolonisation or Fighting the Cold War in Southern Africa?
By Major Klaus Storkmann
East German military support to the FRELIMO of Mozambique
In April 1980, the cover of the Hamburg weekly “Der Spiegel“ depicted a close-up of four soldiers of the National
People’s Army (NVA) titled “Honecker’s Africa Corps” written in the style of a Wehrmacht armband. In its cover
story behind this eye-catching headline the weekly described the military activities of the East German armed
forces in the Third World, in particular on the black continent. Specifically mentioned were the training of
Southern Africans in the GDR and the training provided by NVA officers in Zambia and Mozambique. According
to the Spiegel in 1980, the NVA also provided training for the ANC, SWAPO and the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe.
The NVA instructors made sure that the lower ranks were given the “correct and full drill […], including
ideological indoctrination”. According to the Spiegel, 600 NVA advisors were said to be working in Mozambique
alone.
Other publications alleged that NVA officers even participated in and “commanded” the bloodbath of Munhava
against RENAMO fighters in Mozambique in 1979. In 1982, the GDR, namely her Minister of Defence, allegedly
planned and coordinated a large-scale operation together with Cuba, Angola and Mozambique. It was planned to
fly Cuban troops from Angola to Mozambique and replace them with East German soldiers. However, South
Africa is said to have thwarted the plan in advance.
Hardly had there been any other field of GDR military politics and NVA history which was surrounded by so many
speculations, rumours and exaggerations like the coverage of NVA activities in the Third World. The numbers
provided in western press reports of the 1970s and 1980s ranged from 3,000 to 30,000 East German soldiers
serving in Africa alone.
The lurid Western reports were in sharp contrast to the secretive silence maintained in the GDR. To this day,
there are still rumours and vague ideas circulating with regard to NVA activities in Southern Africa.
The paper will provide initial well-founded academic information on former activities of the GDR military, based
on original documents of the GDR Ministry of Defense and Ministry of State Security (Stasi), other government
bodies and, above all, the SED Central Committee, that have been researched and analysed for the very first
time.
The paper focuses on the military assistance of the GDR for the FRELIMO in the fight against the Portuguese
colonial power from 1967 to 1975/76, which was almost exclusively provided in the form of weapons and
equipment deliveries. The paper will then focus on the continued the military assistance after the FRELIMO
seized power in 1975 and 1976, respectively. Under the conditions of a “reversed front” the GDR and her army
now supported government troops fighting against guerilla units. Hence, in addition to the supply of weapons
and equipment, military assistance focused on modelling “socialist armed forces” after the principles of the
Warsaw Pact armies regarding organization, structure and training. Since the early 1980s this increasingly
included the training of African officers and NCOs in NVA training institutions. The author describes and analyses
in detail whether the National Peoples Army (NVA) trained the armed forces of Mozambique in guerilla warfare.
The paper concludes with a very short look on the military commitment of other states, east and west, and their
armed forces in Southern Africa. The GDR was not singular in her assistance.
To this day, the military commitment of East Germany in the Third World, in particular in Southern Africa, has
been the topic of sometimes unfounded speculations. This paper wants to contribute to an academic reappraisal
of this secret part of GDR history.
