Zaire’s Leader Asked to Help Push Peace Efforts in Angola

A committee of African leaders Tuesday asked President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire to try to put faltering Angolan peace efforts back on track.

The special eight-member peace committee on Angola also called for Mobutu to work toward mediating an end to military operations by the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

At the end of five hours of talks, the committee issued a statement reaffirming Mobutu’s role as the main mediator between the two sides in Angola’s 14-year civil war.

The statement said the African leaders reiterated their support for a June 22 cease-fire agreement reached by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, head of UNITA.

President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, who heads the international committee, said Savimbi had agreed to accept exile during peace talks, as called for in the June accord.

No Rebel Representative

In addition to Dos Santos, Kaunda and Mobutu, the leaders at Tuesday’s meeting were President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Gen. Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Manuel Pinto da Costa of Sao Tome and Principe.

The Angolan rebels did not sent representatives to Tuesday’s talks.

Soon after Savimbi and Dos Santos agreed to the truce and peace talks, both broke down in renewed fighting. New talks between the Marxist Angolan government and the rebels began Aug. 12.

The rebels have been fighting, with U.S. and South African backing, to force the government to share power since shortly after Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

Mugabe opened four days of meetings in Harare on Monday. A summit of Portuguese-speaking African states convenes in Harare today, and the leaders of a nine-nation economic alliance of southern African nations will meet Thursday.