Under Fire, Angola Leaders Call for Unity Government

Embattled authorities held out hope Saturday of forming a government of national unity, and a rebel general said UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi had called off his forces on three main fronts.

UNITA rebels have captured two provincial capitals and closed in on several others since fighting flared two weeks ago. They are less than 35 miles northeast of the capital, Luanda.

The latest clashes have killed more than 1,000 people and shaken May, 1991, accords that brought Angola its first peace since civil war erupted on the eve of independence from Portugal, in 1975.

Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, was routed from Luanda but advanced elsewhere to control about 60% of the nation.

Tensions had been mounting since UNITA lost to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’ formerly Marxist party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, in September elections.

Dos Santos narrowly missed outright reelection in a single round, but Savimbi refused to accept the results, calling them fraudulent. The United Nations deemed the elections generally free and fair.

The government has said Savimbi must relinquish all recent military gains and return to the negotiating table, where both sides had been discussing a second round of presidential voting when the fighting broke out.

With the rebels making military gains, the government Saturday called a meeting of all political parties in hopes of forming a government of national unity.

Cabinet Secretary Jose Leitao announced on the radio that the meeting would be held early this week but did not say where.

An unidentified U.S. diplomat in Luanda, also speaking on the radio, said he hoped Washington could persuade Savimbi to join a government of national unity.

The United States and South Africa supplied UNITA rebels during the 16-year civil war. The Soviets and 50,000 Cuban soldiers backed the government.

UNITA Gen. Peregrino Wambu, in government custody, said on the radio that Savimbi ordered “a cease of operations and . . . observation of the general cease-fire” two days ago around Caxito, a captured provincial capital, and Malanje and Benguela, two other contested cities.