Angola "We Have Taken the First Step"

By Bruce W. Nelan

President Mobutu Sese Seko's country estate, a marble-studded palace set amid flowers and fountains in northern Zaire, is sometimes called "Versailles-in- the-Jungle." The nickname, a reminder of the treaty that ended World War I, seemed especially apt last week as Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, the main antagonists in a 14-year-old civil war, met there for a handshake that might lead to a formal peace agreement.

For years Dos Santos had denounced Savimbi as a traitor for accepting covert military aid from the U.S. and South Africa, and insisted he could make peace with Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), but never with its leader. The dislike was mutual. Savimbi never ceased deriding "Dos Santos and his gang" as puppets for introducing "Russian- Cuban imperialism" into Angola.

For a few hours last week, all the insults seemed forgotten. At the end of the one-day summit, attended by 17 other African leaders, the Angolans announced that they had agreed to a cease-fire and the opening of peace talks. Said Dos Santos: "We have taken the first step."

Angola's civil war, a conflict that has devastated the country and taken the lives of an estimated 100,000 people, began when the Portuguese colonial government pulled out in 1975. The Marxist leadership in Luanda immediately accepted military and economic aid from the Soviet Union and troop support from Cuba; UNITA turned for help to the U.S. and South Africa. With neither side able to prevail in an increasingly costly and bloody contest, the first step toward conciliation was finally taken last December. After eight years of U.S.-brokered negotiations, South Africa agreed to grant independence to Namibia, the southwest African territory it had administered since 1914, in return for a Cuban promise to pull its 50,000 soldiers out of Angola.

With the departure of Cuban and South African forces under way, Dos Santos offered amnesty and "reintegration" to UNITA's 75,000 guerrilla fighters -- with the notable exception of their commander. Savimbi pledged to keep fighting until Dos Santos accepted his demands for a multiparty state and free elections in which UNITA could take part.

While few details were known about last week's discussions, the two sides agreed to the establishment of a mediation commission under Mobutu's chairmanship to deal with "technical" issues and to meet again in Zimbabwe in August. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, who sat in on the talks, said afterward that Savimbi would leave Angola for voluntary exile. Other participants doubted that, however, assuming that Savimbi would want to stay on the scene to keep UNITA alive as a political movement. The biggest obstacle to a final agreement may arise if Dos Santos remains determined to preserve Angola's Marxist one-party system and his control of that system.

A major beneficiary of the summit was Mobutu. The Zairian President will be in Washington this week for meetings with President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker. Mobutu's role in bringing the Angolan opponents together may mute criticism of human-rights abuses and government corruption in Zaire. U.S. Congressmen, who are considering an Administration request for extended aid for UNITA, will also be eager to hear Mobutu's assessment of the chances for peace. The Zairian is expected to call on all outsiders, including the U.S., to cut off military aid to the combatants.

Progress toward peace in Angola may produce a spillover effect elsewhere in Africa. The government of President Joaquim Chissano in Mozambique, another war-torn former Portuguese colony, is reportedly ready to open negotiations with the insurgents of the Mozambique National Resistance, a brutal movement whose 14-year antigovernment campaign has laid waste to the economy and killed thousands of civilians. Chissano was among those who persuaded Dos Santos to talk peace with UNITA -- and may wind up taking his own advice.

With reporting by David Cemlyn-Jones/Nairobi