ANGOLANS FREE 3 AMERICANS IN PRISONER SWAP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 17, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070004-1
- --~ L THE WASHIN GTCN POST
17 November 198Z
Angolans Free
3 Americans in
Prisoner Swap
By Jay Ross
Washington Post Foreign Service
LUSAKA. Zambia. Nov. 16-Two
American mercenaries imprisoned
for seven years and a Washington
area civilian pilot. were, flying to
Paris after their release by Angola
today in a complex swap that in.
volved six nations. the Red Cross
and a guerrilla organization.
In exchange for the Americans,
the anti-Marxist Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA)
freed two Soviet airmen, South Af-
rica released a Soviet warrant officer
and the bodies of four other Rus-
sians, 94 Angolan soldiers, a Cuban i
soldier and the body of another'
Cuban, and Angola returned the
bodies of three South Africans. The
exchange was carried out here under
the auspices of the Geneva-based In-
ternational Committee of the Red
Cross.
The Zambian government im-
posed stringent security at. the air-
port where the swap took place; doz-
ens of soldiers prevented reporters
access to the released prisoners. The
balcony of' the airport terminal was
closed, but from about 200 yards
away the three Americans, merce-
naries Gustavo Grillo and Gary Ack-
er, and civilian pilot Geoffrey Tyler,
appeared all right and disembarked
without assistance from a twin-en-
gine Red Cross plane that had flown
them from Luanda, Angola. A sec-
ond similar Red Cross plane brought
the bodies of the South Africans.
The Americans left aboard a night
flight for Paris after waiting in the t
custody of _ U.S. Embassy officials
until the arrival from South Africa
of the Soviet, Cuban and Angolan
prisoners and bodies. From Paris,
they were to fly to the United States
on W ednesdav.
The swap had been under nego-
tiation by seven partiee--South Af-
rica, Angola, the Soviet Union, Cuba,
Zambia, the United States and
UNITA, the anti-Marxist Angolan
guerrilla organization-on three con-
tinents for almost two years and had
been scheduled to happen several
times before today's successful ex-
change.
Zambia was a key participant be-
cause it provided a neutral site as a
termination point for a series.of Red
Cross flights criss-crossing southern
Africa, ending more than two years .
of -negotiations over one of the most
complicated prisoner exchanges in
history.
The successful swap highlighted
Zambia's role as an intermediary
between black Africa and white-.,
ruled South Africa and, in this, case,
between East and West.
Grillo, 33, from Jersey City, N.J.,
and Acker, 27, from Sacramento,
Calif., were captured in 1976 while
fighting for a losing faction in An-
gola's civil war. Tyler, 32, a civilian
pilot from Prince George's County,
crash-landed on a beach 21 months
ago while flying a light plane from
Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Cape Town,
South Africa.
Soviet officials took custody of the
three Russian military men and four
bodies when they arrived on a C130
several hours later. Two Soviet air-
men had been released yesterday in
the Angolan bush by antigovernment
rebels and flown to Namibia. The
South Africans released the third
Russian, warrant officer Nicolai Pes-
tretsov, who was captured in south
ern Angola 16 months ago.
That plane also contained the 94
Angolans, the Cuban soldier and the
Cuban corpse to be returned to Lu-
anda to complete the turnover.
On several occasions earlier, dates
for the exchange had been set but
were abandoned,. often at the last
minute and ,usually because UNITA
leader Jonas Savimbi balked at
terms for releasing the Soviet air-
men. Because of the complex logis-
tics, Savimbi had to release his cap-
tives first for the swap to proceed.
Aside from the humanitarian ges-
ture by the Angolan parties and
South Africa; the various sides were
seeking to score political points with STAT
the swap.
The release of the mercenaries
ends a bitter chapter in relations
between Angola and the United
States, the only major country that,
does not recognize the Luanda gov-
ernment. The prisoners have been a
long-time impediment to improve-
ment in relations with the oil-rich
Marxist West African nation that is
a key to the independence of neigh-
boring South Africa-controlled Na-
mibia. The. swap also ends the em-
barrassment of the Soviet -Union
having its men in Angola in the
hands of South Africa and those of a
rebel group supported by Pretoria.
Coming just two days before the
scheduled -visit 'of Vice President
'George Bush, the' exchange was
bound to give a boost to US: Zam-
bian relations.. .:I, ,:
Zambia asked -tire recipient ",gov-
ernments not to provide close access
-to the men, and all-sides cooperated.
The Zambians apparently feared
that the released American prisoners
might be critical on Zambian soil of
Angola, an ally of the Lusaka gov-
ernment.
The prisoners were the product of
-three separate. but linked, wars in-
Angola, a country twice the size of
Texas on the Atlantic coast of south-
ern Africa that has not experienced
peace for almost two decades.
The United States had long
sought to have the two mercenaries
released from Sao Paulo prison in
-Luanda..
Prospects for a swap have been
unstable ever since guerrillas of the
South African-backed UNITA, fight-
ing to gain power in Angola, shot
down a Soviet transport plane in
southern Angola and captured two
crew members two years ago.
The other Soviets and Cubans
were captured or killed during South
African invasions of Angola in search
of guerrillas fighting for indepen-
dence for neighboring Namibia.
Americans Grillo and. Acker were
sentenced to 30 and 16 years, respec-
tively, in public trials in 1976 after
being convicted of being mercenaries.
Another American, Daniel
Gearhart.- of Kensington, Md., was
executed in July 1976 despite a plea
for clemency by president Ford.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100070004-1