Angola Peace Imperiled as Rebel Leader Assails Vote

The fragile peace in war-torn Angola was threatened Tuesday when rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, sinking to defeat in the country’s first multi-party elections, accused the government of fraud and ballot-stealing and demanded that the vote be annulled.

But the United States, which poured millions into Savimbi’s guerrilla movement over the past decade, joined Portugal and other foreign election observers in pressuring Savimbi to accept the results.

“We call on all parties to recommit themselves to national reconciliation,” said Herman Cohen, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. He added that Savimbi’s decision to withdraw his soldiers from the newly formed national army was “an unfortunate step, which is not in accord with the spirit or letter of the Angola peace accords.”

With 86% of 5,800 polling stations reporting, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos led archrival Savimbi, 51.2% to 39%, in the 11-candidate race. Dos Santos needs more than 50% to avoid a runoff with Savimbi.

In voting for Parliament, Dos Santos’ formerly Marxist ruling party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), 55.4% to 32%. Both parties now subscribe to free-market medicine to heal an economy that, despite substantial oil and diamond reserves, has been devastated by war and corruption.

The National Electoral Council, an independent Angolan body running the elections, said Tuesday it was suspending the announcement of results while it counted the final votes. A provisional final result is expected in two days.

That decision met one of three demands made by UNITA, which contends that the two-day elections last week were “stained by frauds and violations.”

UNITA also has demanded that the election results be reviewed or annulled and that voting irregularities be investigated. The electoral council has asked UNITA to provide evidence to back up its allegations.

The United Nations, responsible for ruling the election to be “free and fair,” has said it will wait for complete results before making a final determination. But the 400 U.N. monitors, along with 400 other foreign observers, have expressed no qualms, thus far, with the election.

During the voting and counting, about 50 people have been killed in partisan hostility, the national radio station was occupied briefly and members of Dos Santos’ presidential guard were detained for allegedly plotting to assassinate Savimbi.

Both Dos Santos and Savimbi, under pressure from foreign governments, had agreed to abide by the election results and to include members of their opponent’s party in a new coalition government. Under the peace accord they signed in May, 1991, a new 28,000-member army was established, including 11,000 former UNITA soldiers.

But Savimbi’s refusal to accept defeat--and his decision to withdraw his soldiers from the army--has raised fears of a return to the 16-year civil war, which pitted Savimbi’s U.S.- and South Africa-backed guerrillas against Dos Santos’ Cuban- and Soviet-backed government army.

Savimbi has a messianic hold on his disciplined guerrilla army; his supporters are carefully following his reaction to the election.

Arlindo Chenda Pena, UNITA’s joint commander in the new Angolan army, said his organization does not want to resume its war with the MPLA government. But he said the allegations of election fraud have to be investigated.

The United States, which ended aid to UNITA earlier this year, has warned Savimbi that his movement would be ostracized globally if it attempted to return to civil war.

And Washington, which has never officially recognized the Dos Santos regime, has promised to open full diplomatic relations with the new government if the United Nations deems the elections free and fair.

The Angolan government, in a statement on state-run radio Tuesday, urged the country’s 10 million people to remain calm. And it vowed to retaliate against Savimbi if he tries to use violence to upset the election results.

“We are going to do everything we can to defend the consolidation of peace,” said Fernando de Piedade, the deputy interior minister. “But if they hit us on the right side we are not going to turn the other cheek,” he said.

Riot police were stationed across the capital, Luanda, on Tuesday, manning roadblocks and protecting government buildings.

A cease-fire monitoring commission, including officials from the government, UNITA, the United States, Portugal and Russia, met Tuesday, but declined to comment on developments in the country.

Savimbi always has been the wild card in the Angolan elections.

He has spent most of the past 30 years in a bush war, first fighting the Portuguese colonialists and later battling Dos Santos’ government. In 16 years of civil war, an estimated 350,000 Angolans were killed.

Only days before the election, Savimbi told The Times that he would accept an election loss.

“If we lose in a very fair manner, we accept the consequences,” he said. But he added, “If the government manipulates the election, then that’s a different thing altogether.”