Angola, Cuba Reject S. Africa’s Namibian Independence Plan

Angola and Cuba on Wednesday angrily rejected South Africa’s proposed timetable for Namibian independence, charging that Pretoria’s surprise announcement had demonstrated bad faith and disrupted U.S.-mediated peace talks.

In parallel statements, the heads of the Angolan and Cuban negotiating teams here both vowed to continue talking despite their irritation. But they said South Africa’s proposal is unacceptable, adding that the decision to make it public had violated “ethical standards” of the confidential negotiations.

The outcry over Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha’s announcement Tuesday in Pretoria stood in sharp contrast to the atmosphere of progress and cooperation hailed by all sides after last month’s 14-point accord in New York. It seemed likely to slow the diplomatic momentum that Soviet and U.S. officials had described as harbingers of possible success after years of conflict in southern Africa.

The U.S. mission, in a statement issued on behalf of Assistant Secretary of State Chester A. Crocker, said the chief U.S. mediator regards the South African proposal as one of several expected to be put forward by various sides. But in what sounded like a rebuke, the mission also said U.S. officials understood that the proposals were to be put forward “on the conference table, not in the media.”

Cuban and Angolan envoys suggested that Crocker was surprised by Botha’s public statement, which came only a short time after South African negotiators had put the proposal on the table in Geneva.

Botha offered a swift cease-fire and withdrawal of South African troops from Angola by Sept. 1, to be followed within nine months by U.N.-supervised elections for an independent government in Namibia, or South-West Africa. He made the promises contingent on a full withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola by the election date--June 1, 1989--and the dismantling of seven African National Congress guerrilla bases in Angola.

Carlos Aldana Escalante, head of the Cuban negotiating team, and Venancio de Moura, Angola’s deputy foreign minister, said the South African offer amounted to a reiteration of past promises to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 435, which calls for Namibian independence. They added that since South Africa has failed to respect previous deadlines, the new proposal should be seen as a public relations gesture rather than a serious negotiating offer.