South Africa, Angola OK Plan for Peace

PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africa and Angola today formally accepted an agreement designed to withdraw foreign troops from Angola and grant independence to Namibia.

The agreement sets out principles, but not details, for ending cross-border conflict in southwestern Africa.

But it says nothing about time-tables for Cuban and South African troop withdrawals, cutoffs of Soviet, American and South African military aid to the warring parties, or settlement of the Angolan civil war.

Agreement by Cuba

In Washington, State Department officials said Cuba also had agreed on the principles and that an official announcement was expected soon. The United States mediated the talks that led to the settlement.

“Further agreements are envisaged in these principles,” Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha told a news conference. “We have traveled a long distance to get to this stage, but we are only at the foot of the mountain. The road ahead is steep.”

The official Angolan news agency ANGOP, monitored in Lisbon, carried a transcription in Portuguese of an agreed statement on the accord. Angola is a former Portuguese colony.

Botha said the best prospects for progress were at the negotiation table, not on the battlefield. “There is a general consensus that no one should come out a loser,” he said. “Everyone can come out winners if we can achieve peace in the region.”

Talks ‘Within Days’

Botha said further negotiations could begin “within days, based on the set of principles that have been agreed to.”

No date or site has been set for another round of peace talks, but they are tentatively scheduled for August. The talks began in May.

The 14 principles include acceptance of a withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola and implementation of a U.N. peace plan for Namibia, including South African withdrawal from the territory it has ruled for 73 years.

Neither the agreement, nor Botha, mentioned the estimated 3,000 South African troops in Angola.