1 Condition Met for Angola Rail Line, Rebel Says

One of two conditions set by Angolan rebels for the reopening of the strategic Benguela Railway has been met, rebel leader Jonas Savimbi says.

But it would take over a year to repair damage caused to the east-west railway across central Angola by the country’s long civil war, Savimbi told reporters Saturday at his remote guerrilla headquarters in southeastern Angola.

Reopening the railway would allow several black countries to avoid shipping their mineral exports through white-ruled South Africa--and thus enable them to take a stronger stand against Pretoria.

Ironically, Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has had South African backing for the last decade in its fight against the Soviet- and Cuban-backed Angolan government. Last year, the United States provided $15 million in aid.

Savimbi, who said in March that he was ready to allow reopening of the 810-mile line linking landlocked southern African countries to the sea, said the Marxist government in Angola has agreed to his demand that no military traffic should use it.

Security Issue Unsettled

Savimbi said a second condition of security for the railway has yet to be met. But despite that, there is a chance that the railway could reopen, Savimbi said.

The rebel leader said his forces control or threaten hundreds of miles of the line, which once carried copper exports from Zaire and Zambia to the Atlantic port of Lobito on Angola’s west coast.

Savimbi said he wants an agreement with Luanda on security under which the entire line would be under civilian control.

Scoffing at recent statements by Zambian President Kenneth D. Kaunda that the railway could be reopened in six months, Savimbi said: “It will take more than one year.” His fighters have stripped equipment from parts of the line under their control, he said.

Savimbi, wearing green fatigues and his trademark pearl-handled revolver, said foreigners captured by UNITA in Angola will no longer be released as before.