Southern Africa: One More Step Toward Peace

Cuba offers terms for an Angola pullout

Ever since the Reagan Administration began its behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts in 1981 to secure independence for the predominantly black,, South Africa-controlled territory of South West Africa, or Namibia, it has insisted on one key condition: the withdrawal of some 25,000 Cuban troops from neighboring Angola. Last month representatives of the South African and Angolan governments negotiated a historic cease-fire in the smoldering, nearly 18-year-old war along the Angola-Namibia border. This raised new hopes for a breakthrough in the long-stalled negotiations over Namibia. Then last week in Havana, Angola’s Marxist President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and Cuba’s President, Fidel Castro, unexpectedly issued a joint communiqué setting forth terms for a withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.

Though couched in stinging, anti-South African rhetoric, the statement was the strongest signal to date that Castro may be ready to comply with U.S. and South African demands to pull out of Southern Africa. The three major Angolan-Cuban conditions:

> A withdrawal of South African troops from Angola, where until recently they have been waging hit-and-run offensives against the Marxist-oriented guerrillas of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), Namibia’s black liberation movement.

> South African acceptance of U.N. resolutions calling for withdrawal of South African Defense Forces from Namibia and full independence for the territory.

> An end to South African hostilities against the Angolan government and to Pretoria’s support for the antigovernment forces of Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). “The governments of Cuba and Angola,” the communiqué went on, “reiterate that they shall restart, on their own decision and exercising their sovereignty, the implementation of the gradual withdrawal [of Cuban troops] as soon as the conditions are met.”

Irked by references to the “disgraceful” and “repugnant” Pretoria regime, South African Foreign Minister Roelof (“Pik”) Botha denounced the language of the Havana statement as “unacceptable.” Nonetheless, despite the feverish rhetoric, U.S. officials were hopeful. Declared Secretary of State George Shultz: “If the outcome of the Angolan-Cuban talks is progress toward Cuban troop withdrawal, I think that’s positive.”

Daunting obstacles remain before the Cubans go home. Pretoria is sure to demand ironclad guarantees of a Cuban withdrawal before its own troops leave Namibia. Still, the cease-fire between South Africa and Angola has held, and even South African officials have been impressed by the Angolan determination to end the border war. In recent weeks, troops from both countries have combined forces in a Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC), which has been forced to engage disruptive SWAPO forces on three separate occasions. The JMC toll: two killed and eight wounded, all Angolan. The fact that the Dos Santos government has been willing to let its soldiers fight against SWAPO, once its trusted ally, indicates how seriously it takes its new truce with South Africa.