Guerrillas Angola

At least 200 rebels were killed and a top guerrilla general was captured after government troops drove guerrillas from a strategic town, reports said. Angolan national radio said soldiers backed by armed civilians forced rebels out of Lubango, about 400 miles southeast of the capital of Luanda and site of a government air base. The radio report said Gen. Padrinho Pilartes, UNITA military commander for southern Angola, was seized.

Rebels ringed another key city Friday, and the government told guerrilla chief Jonas Savimbi he must give up all recent military gains to stop Angola from sliding back into civil war. Savimbi's troops already control about 60% of the country. On Friday, rebels encircled Malanje, the capital of the northern province of the same name, the state newspaper Jornal de Angola and Western diplomats said.

Fighting between Angolan government forces and the former rebel movement UNITA raged in the Angolan capital Saturday as a peace commission met to examine ways of preventing the country from sliding back into civil war. Former colonial ruler Portugal and regional power South Africa prepared to evacuate their nationals, and Britain and the United States advised their citizens to leave while they could.

Jonas Savimbi is returning to Luanda, the war-weary capital of Angola, 16 years after he retreated into the bush to lead U.S.-backed guerrillas in a bloody struggle against the pro-Soviet government. His return today will mark a new phase in a peace process that began with the signing of a cease-fire last May and that is set to culminate in free elections in the fall of 1992.

Ending a 16-year civil war that took more than 300,000 lives and ravaged their country's economy, the leaders of Angola's two major factions signed a peace agreement Friday that commits them to lay down their arms and compete in multi-party elections.

The News: Representatives of Angola's warring factions initialed a peace accord May 1, 1991, that has effectively ended a bloody 16-year civil war. The agreement, which will be formally signed during ceremonies this week in Lisbon, Portugal, confirms a de facto cease-fire in effect since May 15 and calls for national elections to be held between September and November, 1992. The Background: Portugal ended almost 400 years of colonial rule in Angola on Nov.

The Angolan government and U.S.-backed UNITA rebels celebrated the first hours of a cease-fire Thursday, saying they have stopped the fighting in one of Africa's longest, bloodiest civil wars. Portuguese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jose Alberto de Sousa read the joint announcement by the longtime adversaries after two days of peace talks mediated by Portuguese, U.S. and Soviet officials. The cease-fire took effect at midnight Wednesday.

The Angolan government and the U.S.-backed guerrilla force it has battled since 1975 initialed agreements Wednesday to end one of Africa's longest and bloodiest wars. The 1,500-page accords call for an internationally monitored cease-fire to take effect in June and for the first multi-party elections in the southern African nation in the fall of 1992.

Delegates from Angola's leftist government and U.S.-backed UNITA rebels reopened talks in Lisbon, Portugal, on terms of a cease-fire in the southern Africa nation's 16-year-old civil war. The two sides are expected to sign a provisional accord this week, diplomats participating in the talks said. They said the deal would not halt the fighting immediately, but should be effective by April. UNITA officials said the Angolan government had proposed unacceptable amendments.