World Notes NAMIBIA

A fitful peace descended last week on Namibia as the longtime South African colony struggled to carry out its United Nations-supervised transition toward independence. There were only a few clashes between guerrillas of the South West Africa People's Organization and local and South African security forces; the fighting had killed 293 during the first three weeks of the transition. Some 1,000 SWAPO forces remained in Namibia rather than returning to bases more than 100 miles north, beyond the border in Angola.

Commission members monitoring the border situation formally declared SWAPO's presence in Namibia a violation of the peace accord and instructed the rebels to return to Angola. The U.N. belatedly began deploying, but at week's end only a handful of rebels had surrendered, apparently because assembly points were also manned by Namibian security forces. Some chose instead to make their own way over the border.