Angola, Rebels Discuss Peace as Fighting Continues

Angola’s government and UNITA rebels agreed at U.N.-sponsored peace talks Thursday on an agenda for peace as artillery battles raged across their country.

U.N. special representative Margaret Anstee said after a two-hour session that the talks in the Ethiopian capital had “a very positive atmosphere.”

Anstee, the former British ambassador to Angola, said both sides agreed to discuss releasing prisoners of war, establishing a cease-fire, restoring a May, 1991, peace accord, and the role of the United Nations.

The talks were expected to last three days. The rebel delegation arrived late Wednesday after fighting in Angola delayed their flight.

Angola’s 16-year civil war was halted by the 1991 accord that cleared the way for multi-party elections last September. But rebel leader Jonas Savimbi contested the election as rigged and had his National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, take up arms again.

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has recommended that the 700-member U.N. force in Angola be scaled back, and withdrawn by April 30 if no progress is made toward peace.

In Angola, meanwhile, artillery barrages rocked four provincial capitals--Menongue, Huambo, Kuito and Luena.

President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos repeated accusations Thursday that South Africa and Zaire have deployed soldiers to help the rebels in northern Angola. Zaire and South Africa have denied the charges.