Elections for an independent Namibia were less than a week away when South Africa, which has controlled the country for 74 years, called foul. Pretoria dramatically claimed that hundreds of Marxist SWAPO guerrillas were infiltrating illegally into the country, posing a serious threat to a free and fair vote. Claiming to have "monitored" internal messages from a United Nations group supervising the election, South Africa suggested that the unit was reluctant to act against SWAPO. Vowing to "take whatever steps would be required," South Africa put its own troops on alert.
U.N. officials denounced the supposed intercepts as fakes, and peacekeepers...
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