Cuban Denies Accord on Angola Pullout

A senior Cuban official Monday denied any agreement with the United States and South Africa on withdrawing Cuban troops from Angola and said such an agreement would require a halt in support for Angolan rebels by Washington and Pretoria.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon, a member of the Castro government’s delegation that took part in four-way talks in New York over the weekend, said Cuba has offered to withdraw its 50,000 troops in 30 months if the sovereignty of Angola is guaranteed.

But the forces will not leave, he said, as long as the United States and South Africa continue to supply weapons to Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA rebels who have been fighting the Marxist government of Angola for 13 years.

“What is needed is that South Africa and the United States show the necessary political will to bring about what could be an acceptable solution for everybody,” the Cuban said.

After the three-day talks, some published reports Monday said Cuba had agreed to pull out of Angola in 24 to 30 months. Dismissing the reports as “imaginative,” Alarcon declared: “We have agreed to nothing, and there is not even a date set for our next meeting.”

He said the independence of Namibia does not have to wait for a Cuban pullout from Angola--although South Africa, with the backing of Washington, made the departure of foreign forces a condition for its cooperation.

U.N. Deadline

South Africa has ruled Namibia, the former German colony of South-West Africa, since World War II despite a U.N. resolution passed 10 years ago that called for the territory to become independent. In its most recent pronouncement, the U.N. Security Council urged a deadline of Nov. 1 for South African troops to depart.

“There were Cuban troops in Angola when the resolution was passed, and the resolution made no mention of them,” Alarcon noted.

Representatives of the four nations, but not Savimbi, have been meeting since May, most recently in Brazzaville, Congo. The Brazzaville talks adjourned last month, and the parties reconvened in New York for informal consultations, with Assistant Secretary of State Chester A. Crocker presiding.

Crocker made no public comment at the conclusion of the talks Sunday. But on Monday, the State Department issued a statement saying that the negotiators have “substantially narrowed” the gap on a timetable for the withdrawal of Cuban troops. But the statement cautioned that “significant further decisions” must be made before an accord can be reached.

Speaking to reporters after joining Angolan representatives to inform Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar of their progress, Alarcon emphasized that Cuba’s forces in Angola are under no pressure to leave.

And he sharply rejected the suggestion of a Cuban withdrawal that would remove the bulk of the fighting forces early. He called this a “dismantling” of the forces, unacceptable to Havana because it would threaten Angola’s security.