Gaining Ground

Modest progress on Namibia

It was an unusually friendly meeting, considering the coolness that South Africa generally displays toward the U.N. After several talks, including a long working lunch accompanied by vintage South African wines, U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and officials of Prime Minister P.W. Botha's government announced that they had hammered out a detailed agreement on long-deadlocked negotiations over one of southern Africa's most intractable problems: achieving independence for the South Africa-controlled territory of Namibia. Declared Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha: "We have today resolved all the outstanding issues."

It was not quite that simple. The biggest stumbling block to an accord remains South Africa's insistence that Namibian independence be linked to the withdiawal of an estimated 30,000 Cuban Hoops in neighboring Angola. Although the issue was sidestepped last week, the negotiators had, as Perez de Cuellar put it, made "meaningful progress." The most significant accomplishment, perhaps, was intangible. The low-key Peruvian Secretary-General convinced the South African government that he was not biased in favor of the South-West Africa People's Organization of Namibia (SWAPO), the guerrilla group that has been fighting for Namibian independence since 1966. By winning the confidence of South Africa's leaders, Perez de Cuellar was able to persuade them to make concessions on several critical points.

South Africa had already approved much of a 1978 U.N. plan calling for a phased withdrawal of its 20,000 troops in Namibia, followed by U.N.-supervised elections leading to independence. But the negotiations became bogged down in arguments over details. Last week Prime Minister Botha broke the impasse by pledging to choose between two voting methods for Namibia's preindependence elections. He also dropped South African demands about the composition of the 7,000-man U.N. force that is to supervise the elections and the ceasefire. U.S. officials regarded the results as "much better than expected."

Perez de Cuellar s visit to Angola later in the week was also mildly encouraging. Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos told the Secretary-General that a Cuban troop withdrawal might be possible under certain conditions. Among his demands: that South Africa halt its military support for guerrillas of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and agree to Namibian independence.

But the situation in Angola remains extremely complex. The Dos Santos government relies heavily on the Cubans, not only for military support but for help with a wide variety of government services. Furthermore, the South Africa-supported UNHA rebels have recently been gaining ground in their efforts to destabilize the Dos, Santos government. Two weeks ago they captured the town of Cangamba. which is near the strategic Benguela railroad thai normally carries copper from Zambia to ports on the Atlantic. If UNITA scores further gains, Angola may feel an even greater need for Cuban support.

South African Foreign Minister Botha reiterated last week that his country remained "irrevocably committed" to its demand for the Cuban troop withdrawal. Fearing that it may one day face an arc of unfriendly black-ruled states along its borders, South Africa has always looked for excuses to maintain its control over mineral-rich Namibia. When the Reagan Administration proposed tying Namibian nationhood to the withdrawal of the Cubans from Angola. South Africa seized on the condition as a convenient delaying tactic. More recently. South Africa has hinted that UNITA should have a role in the Angolan government, thereby raising fears that South Africa might impose another obstructive precondition to Namibian independence. sb This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.