Striking Achievement

The peace agreement signed in Brazzaville by South Africa, Angola and Cuba heralds the end of colonialism in Africa with independence for Namibia and a new opportunity to end the guerrilla war in Angola. It is an important achievement of the Reagan Administration and Chester Crocker, assistant secretary of state for Africa.

Under terms of the agreement, the United Nations will commence on April 1 a transition to independence in Namibia that will be culminated with popular elections next November. At the same time, Cuban troops will begin a phased with drawal from Angola that is scheduled for completion on June 30, 1991.

Both the United States, which served as the key mediator in the peace process, and the Soviet Union, which gave strong support to the agreement, will serve as observers to the tripartite commission that will oversee implementation. That in itself is an extraordinary move away from the East-West confrontation that has characterized the struggle in Angola.

The final agreement will be signed in New York on Thursday after the United Nations works out a plan to verify the withdrawal of the Cubans.

There is no provision in the peace plan for settling the guerrilla war that has raged in Angola since independence was won from Portugal in 1975. The government has offered amnesty to Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA forces, which have been armed by South Africa and the United States, but reconciliation with Savimbi has been refused by the government in Luanda.

Independence will now come to Namibia about eight years late--a delay largely due to Pretoria’s stubbornness that apparently was encouraged by the Reagan policy of constructive engagement with South Africa. A meeting called by the United Nations in January, 1981, to implement the independence agreements failed when South Africa refused cooperation. Subsequently the Reagan Administration and Pretoria together insisted that independence in Namibia be linked with the withdrawal of Cuban forces from neighboring Angola, and it is that combined agreement that has now been reached.