Street Fighting Perils Angola`s Truce

October 12, 1992|By New York Times News Service.

LUANDA, ANGOLA — Heavy street fighting erupted in downtown Luanda Sunday between the local police and opposition party soldiers in the worst breach yet of Angola`s 18-month-old cease-fire.

The fighting broke out after a car bomb exploded near a hotel where senior officials of the opposition, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, were staying.

Soldiers guarding the building responded by pounding much of the city center with heavy-caliber machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Another barrage of gunfire occurred five hours later outside the same hotel, leaving at least five people dead and many wounded by the end of the day.

It was not clear whether the gun battles were isolated incidents or a foretaste of what could be a resumption of a 16-year civil war that ruined this country`s economy.

Luanda, the capital, was relatively unscathed during most of the civil war, and Sunday is believed to be the first time since 1975 that the forces of the opposition, known as UNITA, and those of the leftist governing party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, have exchanged heavy gunfire within the city limits. Angola became independent of Portugal in 1975.

The country already has been tense since Jonas Savimbi, the longtime leader of the opposition group, charged that recent presidential and parliamentary elections were rigged in favor of the ruling party.

The release of election results, which pointed to Savimbi`s opponent as the winner, have been delayed. Savimbi has said he would never accept the results and broadly hinted there could be a return to war unless the vote was annulled and new elections held.

Salupeto Pena, a senior UNITA official, surveyed the damage caused by the bomb blast and subsequent gun battle Sunday.

``If anything like that happens near the old man, war will start immediately,`` he said, referring to Savimbi.

The fighting coincided with the arrival of a special delegation from the UN Security Council sent in an effort to resolve the political impasse over the election.

The delegation, which includes Edward Perkins, the American representative to the United Nations, flew to the central Angolan town of Huambo, where Savimbi and his aides have been holding talks.

The delegation departed just before the local authorities, reacting to the violence downtown, closed Luanda`s international airport.

International election observers said the voting generally was free and fair but the national electoral council decided to withhold the results, pending a recount and the arrival of the UN team.