News In Brief

US helps S. Africa to hurt neighbors, study charges

The United States is working with South Africa to preserve its economic grip on its black neighbors, a private study group charged Wednesday. The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, said black southern African countries were struggling to reduce their dependence on South Africa but that the United States wanted it to continue.

Edgar Lockwood, the organization's southern Africa representative, told a news conference the people of Angola and Mozambique had paid a high price in suffering for their new security agreements with South Africa, reached partly through US mediation. The accords appeared to demonstrate the effectiveness of South African destabilization activities against its neighbors, he said.