Peace in Southern Africa

The people of southwestern Africa are nearer peace today because diplomats in Geneva succeeded in their task last week. South Africa, Angola and Cuba agreed on a truce in the fighting in Angola and neighboring Namibia, and the United States and the Soviet Union are both playing prominent roles in trying to end the political hostilities. But much remains to be done to untangle the strands of foreign intervention and internal rebellion that have kept Angola and Namibia in turmoil for years.

South Africa, Cuba and Angola all said that they would stop shooting in both Angola and Namibia. But Chester A. Crocker, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs who mediated the talks, warns that the cease-fire covers only the outside forces fighting in the region. It doesn’t cover the countries supplying arms--meaning the Soviet Union and the United States. Soviet diplomats were backstage in Geneva, and their American counterparts should now have some idea whether the Soviets are serious about disengaging themselves from Third World wars.

The Soviet Union does seem to be encouraging the Angolan government to talk to the forces that are rebelling against them--the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA. UNITA says that it is not going to stop fighting just because there is an agreement. Not with thousands of Cubans still around. The United States and South Africa, which provide aid to these rebels, should use their influence to keep UNITA from upsetting this still-tenuous truce.

The next and critical step, then, is to agree on a timetable for the withdrawal of 50,000 Cuban troops who are still in Angola. In the web that is southwest Africa, that disengagement determines how quickly South Africa is willing to grant independence to Namibia, because Angola is backing the Namibian rebels who oppose the rule by South Africa.

Agreements do not mean solutions, as diplomats have learned too often. Ten years ago South Africa agreed to carry out a U.N. resolution to provide independence to Namibia, which it has ruled since World War I. But up until now the South Africans have used a variety of pretexts to maintain their rule despite that agreement.

The next round of talks will start in Geneva on Aug. 22. The Angolans and Cubans have promised to reach agreement by Sept. 1 on a timetable for Cuban troop withdrawal that would be “acceptable to all parties.” Crocker has already achieved a major diplomatic success for the Reagan Administration by getting this far. Getting the Cubans out of Angola to everyone’s satisfaction would cap the deal and go a long way toward letting the Africans decide for themselves whom they want in charge.