Rebels Without a Clause

When Marxist Mozambique and apartheid South Africa signed a nonaggression treaty this year, it meant an end to support for guerrilla movements using one another's territory as bases. Since then, antiapartheid militants have been discouraged in Mozambique. Now South Africa has come up with a plan for keeping its part of the bargain. South African Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha said that the Mozambican government and its prime adversary, the anti-Communist Mozambique National Resistance movement, have agreed to a South Africa-sponsored cease-fire proposal. The plan calls for the M.N.R. to recognize President Samora Machel's regime.

Also, South Africa has offered troops to monitor the cease-fire and provide technical help for war-and drought-ravaged Mozambique.

Though covert South African support for the M.N.R. is expected to end, the group is not likely to disband. Evo Fernandes, leader of the M.N.R.'s delegation to the cease-fire talks, declared that the rebels "will not accept the presence of South African troops on Mozambican territory." As for the Machel government, he added, "the war continues, and we may have to escalate our actions."