ANGOLA: Strident U.S. Republicans Could Hamper Peace Process

By Lahai J. Samboma Reprint | | Print |

LONDON, Dec 19 1994 (IPS) - Since the Republican Party routed Bill Clinton’s democrats and won control of the United States Congress in elections last month there has been virtually no coverage of the likely impact on the Angolan peace process.

This is in spite of the fact that in the wake of the Republican’s Congressional landslide victory sundry commentators and analysts were falling over each other pontificating on its effects on United States domestic and foreign policy.

The analysts have been advocating taxation and welfare cuts to the slashing of the foreign aid budget.

It is a fact that the Republican upsurge in the United States has boosted the confidence of Jonas Savimbi and rebels of his so- called National Union for the Total Dependence of Angola (UNITA) to reject the latest Lusaka peace initiative and to pursue their war of attrition against the Angolan people.

As Mike Terry, the director of the London-based pressure group Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), says, the signals which have been emanating from Washington since early November are encouraging the rebels to flout the protocols of the peace accord signed Nov. 22 between UNITA and the Angolan government in the Zambian capital Lusaka.

“Thera are clearly powerful elements within UNITA opposed to peace. And it is these people who are being encouraged by Republican Congressmen like Jesse Helms and others to break the ceasefire agreement,” said Terry.

The view is shared by David Coetzee, the Angolan specialist and editor of ‘Southscan’ — the bulletin on southern African affairs — who maintains that the veto which a republican majority congress has on policy bodes ill for war-torn Angola. According to him, Clinton’s lame duck presidency has made Savimbi much more concerned about lobbying Republican support than working towards peace.

Said Coetzee: “I suspected it was only a matter of time before they went back to the Bush. What they have been doing since November is engaging in a massive diplomatic offensive to reactivate their old Republican network — and reactivating Republican support.

“It was possible that UNITA would return to the bush to wage a war of attrition against government forces. This was the situation before the war re-started and when they lost the elections in 1992.”