AFRICA UPDATE

South Africans battle to implement peace pactShantytown residents said police shot and killed two people in a pre-dawn clash on Sept. 17, and blacks killed seven fellow blacks in South Africa's township conflict. Police said they were fired on with AK-47 automatic rifles while patrolling the Phola Park squatter settlement east of Johannesburg. They returned fire and residents said two people were killed. Troops and police patroled township streets and manned roadblocks where battles between rival political and ethnic factions have raged since Sept. 7. Nonetheless, police said, a peace accord signed Sept. 14 by 24 organizations including Nelson Mandela's African National Congress; its main black rival; Inkatha, and the government was holding. The agreement sets out an elaborate mechanism to monitor violence and pinpoint instigators, establishes codes of conduct for the police and political groups, and forbids signatories from using insulting language likely to incite violence. More than 3,000 people have been killed in township violence in the past year.

Bush presses Angola to speed peace pact President Bush pressed Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Sept. 15 to fully implement a peace agreement with US-backed UNITA rebels and set a date for national elections. In a 20-minute meeting with Mr. dos Santos, Mr. Bush "reiterated our firm commitment" to a Portuguese-mediated Angolan peace agreement and called for full and timely implementation of the pact, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. Bush noted problems in getting government troops back in their garrisons and the "slow pace" at which discussions are proceeding toward a date for elections, Mr. Fitzwater said. The Angolan leader, whose Soviet/Cuban-backed government agreed this year to a cease-fire in a 16-year civil war with Jonas Savimbia's UNITA forces, was in Washington on a private visit.

Donors promise to reduce African debt Wealthy nations promised to help reduce Africa's debt and pledged more foreign aid but declined to commit to specific targets, according to a United Nations document released on Sept. 16. A committee of all General Assembly members ended 11 days of deliberations on Sept. 15 over a UN recovery program for Africa following the failure of a previous five-year plan. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar as well as most African states wanted governments to cancel official debt and work out ways to reduce monies owed to commercial banks and multilateral institutions. Salim Lone, spokesman for the UN Africa Recovery program, said some African delegates were disappointed the document did not yield more. But he said others noted wealthy nations did commit themselves to more aid and more debt relief "and that's not a small thing to have from the West." The past two weeks of deliberation were a follow-up to a 1986 five-year program that was seen as a watershed in committing wealthy nations to supply resources for development. In turn, African nations promised to restructure their economies, reduce waste, and reallocate government funds.