POLITICS-ANGOLA: International Pressure Mounts To End Conflict

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

HARARE, Jul 29 1998 (IPS) - Pressure from the United Nations and neighbouring countries is mounting to end the conflict in Angola, which has driven thousands of refugees into bordering nations.

The U.N. says it is sending a senior envoy to impress on that Southern African country’s leaders to show restraint.

The envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet President Edoardo dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)

Leaders from the 14 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Namibia this week have also called on Angola’s belligerents to abandon the current military build up, a key SADC member said.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said the conflict could plunge the region into chaos. “It will be a disastrous situation that will impact on the whole region,” he told a parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Tuesday.

Similar concern has been expressed by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who called on the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to help resolve the crisis.

Tension has been building throughout the country since 215 peasants were slaughtered in the north-east village of Mussuku in the Lunde Norte province on Jul 22.

The government blamed the attack on the UNITA, which fought a 20-year civil war with the Luanda government before signing a U.N.- brokered peace accord in 1994.

UNITA has rejected the claim, blaming the incident on a rag-tag diamond gang marauding the mineral rich region.

The U.N., with the help of its peace keeping mission in Angola, which has been scaled down to about 90 military observers and support staff, is conducting an investigation into the killings.

The mission is part of a 7,500-member U.N. peace keeping force, known as UNAVEM-III (U.N. Angola Verification Mission) which was set up in 1995 to help monitor compliance with the Lusaka accord. Its mandate expired on Hun. 30, 1997, when it was replaced by the scaled-down U.N. Observer Mission in Angola (MONA).

The Lusaka protocol was signed on Nov 20, 1994. Provisions of the peace deal included a cease-fire, the quartering and demobilization of ANITA troops, the formation of a unified national army, ANITA’s participation in a government of national unity and the gradual hand over of UNITA-held territory to state administration.

The latest incident has prompted angry voices in the capital Luanda to call for UNITA to be outlawed.

Joao Domingos Francisco Simao, who heads the Angolan Presidential Tendency Union (UTPA, called for the removal of UNITA ministers from the government, the National Assembly and the army.

He claimed that 8,000 Unita commandos had infiltrated Luanda to terrorise and murder people including cabinet ministers and cadres of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

UTPA, a coalition of 25 political parties created in 1997, has no seat in Parliament.

Similarly the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that the humanitarian implications of the resumption of war are enormous in a country where already 3.3 million people can be classified as displaced or war-affected.

“Because of the uncertain political situation, U.N. and aid agencies are reluctant to pour all their resources into rehabilitation programmes for fear of being caught short in the face of a potentially huge emergency,” says a recent U.N. report.

It warns that, “war in Angola will inevitably have widespread repercussions as the conflict spills over the borders into already unstable countries”.

An estimated 150,000 people have fled their homes since the escalation of fighting in the past two months to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Congo-Brazaville.