Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411160128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LUSAKA, ZAMBIA                                  LENGTH: Short

ANGOLAN SIDES AGREE TO TRUCE

The truce, reached after six hours of talks, was the first agreed to by both sides since May 15, 1991. It cleared the way for further negotiations on final details of a peace accord for the southern African nation.

The peace pact is to be signed Sunday in Lusaka, capital of neighboring Zambia.

While a major step toward halting one of Africa's longest and bloodiest civil wars, the truce represents only part of the formal peace plan. Throughout the war that began on the eve of independence from Portugal in 1975, peace overtures and treaties repeatedly have failed to stop the fighting.

Under the plan signed by top generals of the government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebels, fighting would stop tonight. The truce would remain in effect until the peace treaty takes effect Nov. 22 at midnight.

``From tomorrow at 8 p.m. [2 p.m. EST], there should be no more hostilities in Angolan territory,'' said Alioune Blondin Beye, the U.N. special envoy to Angola who mediated a year of peace talks in Lusaka.

``The Angolan people have suffered for 20 years,'' he said. ``There is going to be no more killing in Angola.''

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi had been scheduled to sign the peace pact Tuesday, but continued fighting that included a string of government victories caused the rebels to balk.