Namibia: Making a Deal

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The stumbling block to an agreement remains the terms on which South Africa will withdraw its forces from the territory they have continued to hold in defiance of a 1978 U.N. resolution calling for their departure. SWAPO and its African allies refuse to allow elections until the South African troops have left. Pretoria, however, has said that it would pull out its men only when the 20,000-man Cuban contingent leaves Angola. The Cubans have been aiding the Luanda government since it became independent from Portugal in 1975.

A senior official in the Reagan Administration declared last week that "discussions of the greatest sensitivity" were being held by the U.S. and Angola. Said a top State Department specialist: "We've got to have some parallel movement on the Cuban issue or we won't get a deal." The U.S. believes that Angola may be ready to send the Cubans home because of the mounting cost of maintaining them.

The possibility of an imminent solution to the 30-year-old dispute has sent a flicker of excitement through the usual Germanic calm of Windhoek. Along Kaiserstrasse, the main street, office space is being booked by agents of the Western countries negotiating the settlement. The Windhoek show grounds are being swept for possible use as a U.N. barracks, and Windhoek's topless massage parlors are preparing to recruit extra staff from South Africa The city that has been moribund for so long is finally, like the diplomats, showing some optimism.