From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ANGOLA: GOVERNMENT GIVES UNITA REBELS ONE-WEEK ULTIMATUM
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 07:35:56 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ANGOLA: GOVERNMENT GIVES UNITA REBELS ONE-WEEK ULTIMATUM


lisbon, dec 3 (ips) -- the angolan government has given the rebel
''union for the total independence of angola (unita)'' one week
to end its armed struggle or face an all-out war.

unita has one week to join the democratic process or ''the war
will be official,'' deputy information minister ademiro da
conceicao said thursday in an interview with a portuguese radio
station.

however, prime minister designate marcolino moco said, also
thursday, that his government had exhausted all possibilities for
dialogue with unita and that ''war was possible.''

he told a portuguese station, ''tsf-radio jornal'' that his
cabinet had left ''some posts open for unita in a show of
goodwill,'' but added immediately that the rebel movement ''does
not deserve ministerial posts.''

da conceicao said that, within the one-week period, unita has
to state whether it would join a new national reconciliation
government and whether it accepted the parliamentary seats it won
in elections two months ago.

it will also have to begin pulling out of towns occupied by
its guerrillas, he said.

''if (unita leader jonas) savimbi does not accept these three
conditions, he will be excluded from the process and we shall
proceed to declare his party illegal,'' the deputy information
minister said.

''this is our last goodwill gesture and if it is not accepted,
the open war with unita will be official,'' he added.

according to moco, unita ''should be declared illegal, since
it has not complied with the peace agreements'' signed in
portugal in may 1991 and again on nov. 27 in the angolan town of
namibe, after weeks of renewed fighting.

''our desire is to act in accordance with the peace accords,
but unita does not leave us many alternatives,'' he commented,
when asked whether the angolan army would launch a
counter-offensive to retake northern angolan towns captured by
unita.

after signing the namibe peace accord, unita occupied the
towns of uige and negage, while bloody fighting has been reported
in the province of zaire (bordering on the country of the same
name) whose administrative capital, m'banza congo, unita has
surrounded.

political observers, diplomats and portuguses journalists in
luanda all feel that a counter-attack by the government, using
combat planes, is imminent. (more)
----


planes have not been used in the fighting that has been going
on in almost the entire country ever since unita decided to
resume its armed struggle and reject the results of elections
held in september, in which it suffered a crushing defeat.

moco's statements led observers to believe that the government
could attack at any time.

angola has been in the throes of a civil war since feb. 4,
1964, when a handful of pro-independence fighters attacked the
luanda jail, where the portuguese police had imprisoned a number
of anti-colonial leaders.

thirteen years of anti-colonial struggle were followed by one
year's respite around independence in 1975, but in 1976,
hostilities broke out between the ruling popular movement for the
liberation of angola (mpla) and unita.

the civil war raged on until may 1991, when the peace accord
was signed in portugal, paving the way for the september
elections. (end/ips/trd/md-ego/kb/92)
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