Edition: U.S. / Global


Published: April 9, 1989

Thousands of Angolan civilians have been killed by land mines, by indiscriminate attacks and by starvation as both sides in their nation's civil war have violated international codes of war, the human rights organization Africa Watch charged today.

In a 153-page report based on interviews with 87 Angolans in refugee camps in Zaire and Zambia, Africa Watch deplored ''the staggering human cost'' of the war ''in which violations of the international laws of war by both sides have resulted in serious and systematic abuses of human rights.''

Aryeh Neier, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, the umbrella organization for Africa Watch, said the interviewers took testimony about abuses committed by forces of the Angolan Government, which has been supported by Cuba, and by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or Unita, the rebel force supported by South Africa and the United States.

''Our information indicates that both sides have used land mines indiscriminately, killing or injuring at least 20,000 civilians,'' Mr. Neier said. ''Very often these were placed in footpaths to the fields, which made it impossible for peasants to farm and forced them to flee to neighboring countries.'' More Than a Million Displaced

The report says that about 400,000 refugees live outside Angola and another 650,000 are displaced inside the country.

''The testimony we obtained,'' Mr. Neier said, ''shows the extensive use of starvation as a weapon, particularly by Unita - that is, a tactic of encircling and strangling larger villages.''

The Angolan delegate to the United Nations, Manuel Pacavira, was traveling yesterday and could not be reached for comment, and his spokesman, Luiz Matos, declined to comment on the report.

The rebel group's chief representative to the United States, Jardo Muekalia, denied the allegations and said: ''For Unita, as a guerrilla movement, the relationship with the civilian population is not only a necessary element, but it determines our very survival. So, if Unita was deliberately carrying out atrocities against civilians, we would have lost our support and Unita would not exist today.''

''What we do recognize,'' he continued, ''is that civilians have been caught up in the crossfire, especially because the Government has concentrated them in strategic places to prevent them from supporting Unita. And when the civilians travel from one point to another, the Government uses joint military and civilian convoys; that's exactly how most of the civilians that are said to be victims of indiscriminate Unita attacks become victims.''

Mr. Neier called on the United States to stop supporting Unita. ''Our view is that given Unita's terrible record, the U.S. should not continue to support it.''