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New York Accords
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The Tripartite Accord, Three Powers Accord or New York Accords granted independence to Namibia and ended the direct involvement of foreign troops in the Angolan Civil War. The accords were signed on December 22, 1988 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City by representatives of the governments of Angola, Cuba, and South Africa.
981 Chester Crocker, U.S.
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The Tripartite Accord, Three Powers Accord or New York Accords granted independence to Namibia and ended the direct involvement of foreign troops in the Angolan Civil War. The accords were signed on December 22, 1988 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City by representatives of the governments of Angola, Cuba, and South Africa.
Negotiations
In 1981 Chester Crocker, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs for newly elected President Ronald Reagan, had developed a linkage policy, tying apartheid South Africa's agreement to retreat from Angola and to relinquish control of Namibia in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 to Cuba's troop withdrawal from Angola. On September 10, 1986 Fidel Castro basically accepted Crocker's proposal.
The Angolan and American governments started bilateral talks in June 1987 while the civil war continued. In an effort to deliver a final blow to UNITA and to drive South Africa out of the country, in 1987 FAPLA, with Soviet support, launched a campaign frought with failures and defeats. A second time the Cubans intervened, stopping UNITA and South African advances and leading to the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale January 13 to March 23, 1987. UNITA and South Africa retreated after a 15-hour battle on March 23 and moved for negotiations.
Initially refusing direct talks with Cuba, the US agreed to include a Cuban delegation which joined negotiations on January 28,1988 and the three parties held a round of negotiations on March 9 in London. The South African government joined negotiations in Cairo on 3 May expecting Resolution 435 to be modified. Defence Minister Malan and President P.W. Botha asserted that South Africa would withdraw from Angola only “if Russia and its proxies did the same.” They did not mention withdrawing from Namibia. On 16 March, 1988, the South African Business Day reported that Pretoria was “offering to withdraw into Namibia -- not from Namibia -- in return for the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola. The implication is that South Africa has no real intention of giving up the territory any time soon.”
But in Angola, the Cubans had created the opposite situation on the ground. In fact, the US wondered whether the Cubans would stop their advance at the Namibian border. Jorge Risquet, head of the Cuban delegation, rejected the South African demands, noting that “South Africa must face the fact that it will not obtain at the negotiating table what it could not achieve on the battlefield.”
While the hostilities in Angola continued, the parties met in June and August in New York and Geneva and finally all approved an outline agreement of Principles for a Peaceful Settlement in South Western Africa on July 20 During the negotiations the South Africans were asked for the release of Nelson Mandela as a sign of goodwill, which was denied. Mandela remained in captivity until 2 February 1990 when the ANC African National Congress ban was lifted. A ceasefire was finally agreed upon on August 8 1988.
The negotiations were finalised in New York with Angola, Cuba and South Africa signing the accord on December 22, 1988. It supplied for the retreat of South African forces from Angola, which had already taken place by August 30, the withdrawal of South Africa from Namibia and Namibia’s independence and the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola within 30 months.
Implementation
The South African Army had left Angola already by August 30, 1988, before the conditions for Cuba’s withdrawal had been hammered out. Cuban troops began withdrawing on January 10, 1989 and the withdrawal was finalized in stages one month early on May 25, 1991. The Angolan government offered an amnesty to UNITA troops. But the situation in the country was anything but settled and it continued to be ravaged by civil war for more than a decade. In spite of free elections, UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi would not accept the results and refused to join the Angolan parliament as opposition. Again UNITA took up arms. Peace only returned to Angola following Savimbi’s death in 2002.
Free elections in Namibia were held in November 1989 with SWAPO taking 57% of the vote in spite of Pretoria’s attempts to swing it in favour of other parties. Namibia gained independence in March 1990.
See also
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