It would seem that there is an attempt being made to
negotiate a peace even as both sides prepare for war!
Angolan Gov't Reports Rebel Attacks
Wednesday, 29 July 1998
L U A N D A , A N G O L A (AP)
ANGOLA'S FORMER rebel movement warned Wednesday that a
four-year-old peace accord to end fighting between rebels and
the government was on the verge of collapse.
Meanwhile, the government on Wednesday reported new
attacks on outlying towns by the former rebel movement, UNITA.
A spokesman for the group denied the allegation and said the
government is engaging in a massive troop build up.
"The peace in Angola is hanging by a thread," said Rui Oliveira, a
UNITA official based in Lisbon, Portugal. UNITA is a Portuguese
acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola.
The government claims UNITA has killed hundreds of civilians
and police in attacks in recent months, including the massacre of
some 200 people last week. Rebels claim police have tortured
and murdered their supporters.
The claims could not be independently verified.
UNITA forces Tuesday captured the strategic town of Mussende,
about 155 miles south of Luanda, after "fierce fighting" with local
police, the local governor told state-run media Wednesday.
Mussende lies on a main road leading to Luanda, the capital.
No information was available about the number of casualties.
Oliveira said the group's supporters had reported a massive
government troop build up in Huambo province, 350 miles south
of the capital, within striking distance of UNITA's remaining
central highland strongholds, where its leadership is based.
Oliveira complained that European Union sanctions against his
movement, announced Tuesday, were "unfair" and further
undermined the peace process.
"The international community is biased against UNITA and is in
fact giving the government a carte blanche to launch an attack
against us," Oliveira said in a telephone interview.
The EU sanctions included restrictions on UNITA's diamond
sales, which provide the movement with hundreds of millions of
dollars annually, and freezing of its bank accounts.
The United Nations has banned UNITA's diamond exports as
part of a package of sanctions that came into force when the
former rebels failed to abide by terms of the 1994 peace
agreement that ended a two-decade civil war.
Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has gotten
approval from Congo to try to help the thousands of Angolans
who have recently crossed the border to escape fighting in their
homeland.
Fearing the escalating violence could undermine the peace
accord, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan dispatched an envoy,
Lakhdar Brahimi, to meet with government and UNITA officials
this weekend in Angola.
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