Angola’s Truce Collapses

Heavy fighting was reported in Angola last week between government troops and the rebel forces of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. What caused the collapse of a truce that was painstakingly stitched together in June by heads of neighboring African states is not precisely clear. But President Bush’s refusal, in deference to his party’s right wing, to stop sending $15 million to $18 million worth of arms a year to Savimbi certainly is a factor to be regretted.

Tens of thousands of Angolans have died in what now approaches a 30-year war, half of it fought to oust Portugal from its colony, the other half to drive out the self-proclaimed Marxists who snatched the government from the Portuguese 14 years ago.

The supply of American arms not only helps prolong the agony of Angola’s people, it threatens still another agreement--one brokered last year by the United States--under which Cuba agreed to withdraw troops that were helping the Angola government fight off Savimbi. The withdrawal, already under way, was in response to South Africa’s promise under the U.S.-sponsored agreement to relinquish control over Namibia on Angola’s southern border. Cuba’s President Fidel Castro said a day after reports of heavy fighting that it could lead to a halt or a slowdown in the withdrawal of Cubans from Angola.

All of this follows not from any conflict between America’s interests and those of Angola, but from a domestic political decision to oblige the President’s right-wing supporters who see Angola’s leadership as part of a Soviet threat in the Third World.

The irony is that Angola’s leaders themselves are beginning to back away from Marxism, as are other former followers of Moscow, and to grope for closer ties with the West. During all 14 years of the UNITA campaign against Angola, the country has continued to be a reliable supplier of oil to the West. Time has made it clear that Savimbi himself is as much outlaw as resistance hero.

Bush has been urged before to think carefully about the consequences of continued support for Savimbi, not just for Angola but for Namibia. With the truce falling apart and the prospect for more slaughter very real, the warnings about arms shipments no longer involve possible consequences. They are a matter of life and death. The President must act soon.