Cuban Troop Pullout Offered, Angola Reports

Cuba and Angola have offered the United States a proposal for the withdrawal of an estimated 40,000 Cuban troops from the African nation, the Angolan Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Official Luanda Radio, quoting a statement issued by the ministry, said the peace terms were put forward at a meeting of Cuban, Angolan and U.S. negotiators, which ended in the Angolan capital on Friday.

“The proposal includes a timetable for the movement of Cuban internationalist troops from the south to north of the 13th Parallel and the gradual departure of the internationalist troops to Cuba until their withdrawal is completed,” the statement said.

The Cuban pullout, however, is conditional on South Africa withdrawing its troops from Angola and a halt to U.S. and South African aid to the Angolan rebel movement, the foreign ministry added.

According to Cuban estimates, about 40,000 Cuban soldiers are in Angola to aid the Marxist government in its 13-year war against guerrillas, primarily the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, led by Jonas Savimbi.

UNITA Not Mentioned

The peace plan offered by Cuba and Angola specifically did not mention participation in negotiations by UNITA, although South Africa has insisted that the rebel group be part of any peace talks and any postwar government.

The plan also includes a proposed settlement to the conflict in neighboring Namibia, also known as South-West Africa, where the rebel South-West African People’s Organization has been fighting South African rule since 1966.

South Africa and the United States have demanded a Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola as a condition for the independence of Namibia.

Savimbi’s UNITA rebels and South African troops, meanwhile, continue to fight government forces and Cuban troops in southern Angola.

In a related development, South African press reports quoted unidentified Western diplomats as saying South Africa and the Angolan government have met in preliminary talks aimed at peace in Angola.

Sources in Luanda, however, said they had no knowledge of such meetings.