Boycott of Portuguese Products Called After Atrocity Reports

The African Liberation Support Committee announced last Friday a boycott of all Portuguese products in the wake of recent allegations that Portuguese soldiers massacred a Mozambique village last December.

Dini Zulu, chairman of the African Liberation Support Committee's local organization said that the recent publicity of the reported mass murders in Mozambique provides a "graphic expression of Portuguese oppression in Africa" and that the committee is trying to tie the alleged massacre to their call for a boycott of Polaroid, Gulf, and all freeze dried coffee, a product that provides most of the income for Portuguese settlers in Africa.

Zulu said that the committee will spend most of its time publicizing the boycott through leaflets and radio announcements.

The boycott was operated on an informal level before last Friday's announcement and is supported by other groups including the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement and the Pan African Liberation Committee.

Zulu explained that the boycott is presently being called on a local level and that he has not notified the national ALSC, a group which grew out of the May, 1972 African Liberation Day protests.

The boycott will help publicize alleged Portuguese atrocities in Africa, which can be carried out only with the United States' $437 million economic and military aid program, including the training of Portuguese soldiers in the U.S., Zulu said.

Reporters continue to issue conflicting reports from the village of Willamo, which is believed to be the settlement Father Adrian Hastings called Wirijamu in his report describing the massacre of 400 villagers.

No traces of cartridges or bullet holes have been found at Willamo, a village that reporters say could have housed only 100 people. But the rubble that remains provides evidence that the village was burned in a military operation, and none of the former residents have yet been found:

Thomas G. Martin, country officer for Portugal at the State Department, said that for the past five years the United States has provided Portugal with $1 million in annual military aid, an amount that included $300,000 for spare parts and $500,000 for training.

Martin emphasized that the United States is complying with a 1961 non-mandatory U.N. Security Council resolution and is securing assurances from Portugal that United States supplied equipment is used only in NATO areas.

Martin conceded that Portugal could send troops that were trained with United States funding to Africa, but explained that the U.S. provides only for NATO-related anti-submarine and air-warfare training. He said that these are not useful in insurgency efforts.

Martin said that "nobody is getting any counter-insurgency training" and explained that Portuguese soldiers were last trained in the U.S. five years ago when two soldiers received training in psychological warfare at Fort Briggs because "some people felt psychological warfare could be related to NATO."

The State Department has investigated every claim that U.S. supplied arms are being used in Africa, and every time the equipment has turned out to be non-U.S. or pre-1961 embargo material, Martin said.

"We honestly believe and respect their assurance that they do not use our equipment in Africa, and I trust them," he concluded.