Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: U.N. sets cease-fire in Angola Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 15:45:13 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD U.N. sets cease-fire in Angola \SH 2 days of fighting puts nation on brink of renewed civil war \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT LUANDA, Angola LUANDA, Angola (AP) - The United Nations announced last night it had arranged a cease-fire between government and rebels troops in Angola, where two days of fighting had threatened to renew civil war. The cease-fire was to take effect this morning, a minute after midnight, and details were to be worked out by U.N. officials in the southern African nation, according to a statement issued by Joe Sills, a spokesman in New York for U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Unconfirmed reports yesterday said about 200 people died over the weekend in battles that threatened the 1991 peace accords between UNITA - the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - and the ruling MPLA party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. The accords halted a 16-year civil war in what was once a Cold War battleground. Yesterday, government forces backed by armored personnel carriers and armed civilians moved against UNITA strongholds in the capital, pounding the rebels with mortar shells and machine-gun fire. Armed civilians including teen-agers fought alongside government police against the rebels. Portuguese reports said two U.N. monitors were among the dead. Officials at the U.N. mission in Luanda monitoring the peace accords said they could not confirm this. Angola became engulfed in civil war after gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. At least 350,000 people died in the fighting. Cuba and the Soviet Union armed the government; the United States and South Africa aided UNITA. Some of the heaviest fighting raged in Luanda's diplomatic district of Miramar, where a UNITA garrison resisted with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The fighting, which began Saturday, followed September elections in which UNITA trailed the governing party. U.N. voting monitors said the balloting was generally free and fair. Rebel leader Jonas Savimbi threatened to fight rather than accept electoral defeat. Portugal's Lusa news agency reported that more than 200 people had been killed since Saturday. In Washington, UNITA spokesman Jardo Muekalia put the number of UNITA dead at about 100. Lisbon's TSF radio had reported earlier that the two sides were in radio contact yesterday, trying to work out a truce. Mr. Muekalia confirmed that UNITA was trying to get U.N. observers to re-establish a cease-fire. In Luanda, witnesses said police units backed by armed civilians entered Miramar at noon and pushed toward Mr. Savimbi's residence, which is surrounded by foreign diplomatic missions. Mr. Savimbi left Luanda last month for Huambo, 310 miles to the southeast. But his residence has been one of UNITA's main bases in the capital. Officials of both sides said a local truce was holding in Huambo. But UNITA Gen. Paulo Mango told TSF radio early in the day that attempts to end hostilities in Luanda had been "fruitless." "We see armed civilians in the streets, some very young, only 14 or 15 years old," Jose Pena Ribeira, a Portuguese resident, told TSF. Outnumbered rebels were trying to escape Miramar, the witnesses said, but UNITA's scarlet and green flag still flew over the residence. Several UNITA leaders were in Luanda when the fighting began. Lusa reported yesterday that some were captured and others escaped by boat. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM