Cuba Halts Angola Troop Pullout Over Rebel Attack

Cuba on Thursday blamed the United States for a rebel attack on its troops in Angola last weekend and temporarily suspended the withdrawal of its forces from the African country.

The decision halted a Cuban pullout of soldiers and equipment from Angola that has been under way since January, 1989, as part of regional peace accords between Angola, South Africa and Cuba. Under the agreement, South Africa halted support for the Angolan rebels and agreed to a U.N.-supervised independence plan for Namibia, Angola’s southern neighbor.

The rebel organization, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which is backed by the United States, said it regretted the incident. It said the Cubans failed to let the rebels know where Cuban troops were located.

Four Cubans were killed and five injured in Sunday’s raid on a water purification plant guarded by Cuban troops in southwest Angola, about 250 miles south of Luanda.

Cuba’s announcement put a hitch in the complex peace process, but it seemed unlikely to lead to a full-scale breakdown of the accords, Western diplomats said.

Cuba has already brought home more than 31,000 of its 50,000 troops from Angola, where they were helping the Marxist government fight UNITA, headed by Jonas Savimbi. The rest of the Cubans are to leave by mid-1991.

Cuba said the suspension would stay in effect until it is satisfied that UNITA will not harass withdrawing Cuban forces or try to disrupt the peace accords.

“Responsibility for these criminal actions by UNITA against Cuban troops and for the sabotage of the peace accords which they imply ultimately lies with the U.S. government, the logistical backer and political adviser of UNITA,” the Foreign Ministry said.

In Washington, the State Department noted that Cuba was ahead of schedule on its troop withdrawal and said it will seek to clarify Havana’s decision to suspend the pullout.