Hope in Africa

Tentative agreement has been reached on the framework for bringing independence to Namibia and ending the civil war in Angola. It is indeed “another important step,” to use the words of Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for Africa.

Crocker has been the leading force in the negotiations, so it was particularly reassuring to hear him say that “we have a structure in place.” But it was sobering also to learn that the negotiators, at their fourth meeting in recent months, had not agreed on the crucial details of implementation. Even the framework, agreed on this week, has yet to be ratified by the governments of Angola, South Africa and Cuba.

Nevertheless, the prospects for resolving the complex issues have never been better. And the prospects are made more favorable by an apparent agreement to speed the peace process that was reached at the Moscow summit meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union. If the governments ratify the broad agreements announced Wednesday, a new round of talks will be engaged in August to work on the details.

There are two details that really matter: a precise agreement from South Africa, once and for all, to abide by its earlier commitment to implement the United Nations plan for independence for Namibia, and, at the same time, a detailed agreement by Cuba to withdraw the troops that it has in Angola. Both could be accomplished within a year. Both should happen at the same time so that Angola will be assured that it will no longer need the Cubans to help defend it from the South Africans, and the South African fears of Cuban aggression in Namibia will be allayed.

Implicit in those broader agreements would be, first of all, termination by the United States and South Africa of their aid to the guerrilla forces of UNITA fighting the government of Angola, and then reconciliation between the Angolan government and UNITA.

The agreements are of immense importance to South Africa, Namibia and Angola. For South Africa the situation is a critical test of its willingness to end its defiance of the United Nations and the World Court and to set free the last major colony of Africa, Namibia, while also signaling an end to its mischievous policy of destabilizing the neighboring black-ruled nations. For Namibia there would at last be the realization of self-rule, the goal of the League of Nations and then the United Nations in the decades since the end of World War I when the former German colony became an international trust. For Angola, in terrible economic and social disarray, the settlement of the civil war would provide an opportunity to get on with nation-building after 13 years of destruction and decay that followed the end of Portuguese colonialism.

Crocker’s initiative must have a particular importance for President Reagan. A foreign-policy success in southwestern Africa would be particularly welcome against the backdrop of disappointments in the Middle East and in Central America, and the failed policy of constructive engagement with South Africa.