Angola Rebels Accused of Kidnaping 70 Foreigners

The United Nations said Wednesday that 20 Brazilian and 50 Russian workers had been kidnaped by opposition UNITA soldiers in southern Angola, where they were working on a dam project.

U.N. spokesman Joe Sills said U.N. staff in Angola were told that the group “had been seized by UNITA forces and we are looking into that.” He gave no further details.

Violence erupted after Jonas Savimbi, leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), rejected the results of U.N.-supervised elections in September that gave the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) a victory.

More than 1,200 people were reported to have been killed during four days of fighting between government forces and UNITA.

Sills also announced that U.N. Undersecretary General Marrack Goulding, in charge of peacekeeping, intended to leave for Angola on Wednesday evening after Security Council consultations on the need to reinforce the military component of the U.N. mission in the southwestern African country. The U.N. Angola Verification Mission now comprises about 350 military observers and several hundred electoral observers and police.

The last pockets of fighting between Angolan government troops and UNITA forces appeared to die down Wednesday, and signs emerged that dialogue might resume. But Sills said the chief U.N. representative in Angola had been unsuccessful in setting up peace talks.