Savimbi Skips The Signing of Peace Accords in Angola

ANGOLANS are reacting skeptically to a peace treaty aimed at ending 19 years of civil war blamed for killing 500,000 people.

Rebels and the Angolan government signed the agreement Sunday in the capital of Lusaka. But leaders of each side had deputies sign the document before hundreds of representatives from 29 countries.

National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) leader Jonas Savimbi's failure to show up in Lusaka, despite pleas for him to sign from world leaders including President Clinton, was seen by Angolan and other African officials as a snub.

``This protocol can't stop the fighting. It has no value because Savimbi has not signed it,'' one Angolan state negotiator said. No war in Mozambique

FEARS of renewed war in Mozambique have receded with former rebel leader Gen. Afonso Dhlakama's acceptance of defeat for his Mozambique National Resistance Movement (Renamo) in last month's first multiparty general elections.

General Dhlakama said Saturday he accepted results giving victory in the Oct. 27 to 29 election to his civil war foes, President Joaquim Chissano and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), which has ruled since the country's 1975 independence from Portugal.

But Dhlakama insisted that final results announced by the independent National Electoral Commission Saturday contained irregularities and were not free and fair as declared by international observers.

``We accept the election results. But they were not fair,'' he told reporters. He added, however, that he would play a constructive role as head of the opposition in parliament.

Muslim protest in Niger

MORE than 5,000 Muslims gathered in Niger's capital Saturday to denounce condoms and the government's anti-AIDS and birth-control campaigns.

The Muslims, who oppose secularization of their 98 percent Muslim country, said promoting the use of condoms to fight AIDS encouraged debauchery among the young.

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