Baker Reports Gain in Ending Angola War

WINDHOEK, Namibia —  Secretary of State James A. Baker III met Tuesday with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and reported substantial progress toward bringing an end to the long-running civil war between U.S. and Soviet-backed armies there.

Dos Santos told Baker he is ready to drop preconditions and agree to an early cease-fire in the war that has pitted the Angolan government, backed by the Soviets, against U.S.-backed insurgents of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). A cease-fire could take effect within several days, a senior U.S. official said.

The official said he does not know if Moscow has persuaded Dos Santos to ease his position but noted that Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze met Monday with Dos Santos.

Later in the day, after a meeting between Baker and Shevardnadze, the Soviet minister said it is time for Washington and Moscow “to go from just mutual understanding to cooperation” and that the superpowers’ joint efforts to bring independence to Namibia could serve as a model for future actions in the Third World.

Shevardnadze said that a joint effort might help solve conflicts in Afghanistan and Angola. However, a senior U.S. official said later that the two men did not reach any specific agreements concerning either conflict.

The U.S. official, who sat in on the meeting, said that the Angolan president previously had demanded that rebel leader Jonas Savimbi agree to at least the broad outlines of an overall settlement before a truce in the latest round of fighting, which began late last year. The official said that Dos Santos now seems to agree with the United States that “a cease-fire is a prerequisite for political negotiations.”

Also, the official said, Dos Santos exhibited more flexibility on all issues of the Angolan peace process than he has in the past.

For his part, Baker told Dos Santos that Washington is ready to upgrade its diplomatic relations with Angola “in the context of national reconciliation” between the government and UNITA. The United States and Angola now have no formal diplomatic ties.

Baker also conferred with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the stalled Middle East peace process, although both men conceded that nothing can be done until Israel ends its present government crisis.

Talking to reporters, Mubarak made clear his frustration at Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s refusal to go along with a complex peace formula advanced by Baker.