Cuba to Pull Its Last Troops Out of Angola 36 Days Ahead of Schedule

The last 2,910 troops of the Cuban expeditionary force stationed in Angola will leave today, Angola and Cuba announced Thursday.

The expeditionary force, which once numbered 50,000, came here to prop up the Marxist government of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in its long war against rebels backed by the United States and South Africa. The Cubans’ departure will be completed 36 days ahead of a June 30 deadline set in a 1988 agreement under which South Africa withdrew from Namibia.

“The governments of Angola and Cuba are pleased to announce their strict compliance with the timetable laid down for the withdrawal,” a joint statement said. “They hope this gesture will help to put an end to all foreign interference, consolidate stability and help in the national reconstruction of the People’s Republic of Angola and the development of a climate of peace (and) mutual respect . . . in Africa.”

A formal peace agreement is due to be signed in Portugal May 31 by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the rebel movement’s leader, Jonas Savimbi, head of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

The two sides have so far stuck to a May 16 truce halting the civil war that devastated the once-rich country from the time of its independence from Portugal in 1975.

The ruling Marxists and Savimbi’s rebels found themselves on each side of the East-West divide during the Cold War between Moscow and Washington. The Cold War’s end helped push the Angolan opponents into talks that resulted in the initialing of peace accords in Portugal May 1, to be followed by the formal agreement at the end of the month.

Dos Santos has lately rejected Marxism and turned his movement into a socialist party that will run candidates in the country’s first multi-party elections late next year.