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Gold/Mining/Energy : amcan minerals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Diamonds Are Forever who wrote (59)	6/14/1998 3:11:00 PM
From: Diamonds Are Forever	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71

UN Panel Threatens Angola Sanctions By Robert H. Reid Associated Press Writer Saturday, June 13, 1998; 1:11 a.m. EDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Security Council has given former rebels in Angola until June 23 to fulfill conditions of a peace plan and avoid sweeping sanctions that would cut into the group's lucrative diamond trade. Sanctions will take effect June 25 if the UNITA rebel movement fails to demobilize its remaining forces, hand over its central highland strongholds, allow U.N. monitors to verify compliance and cease attacks on U.N. and government personnel by June 23. The sanctions include a freeze on UNITA's foreign bank accounts and a ban on sales of diamonds mined in areas under UNITA control. The group earns hundreds of millions of dollars annually from diamond exports. Envoys from the United States, Russia and Portugal, which oversee the 1994 peace agreement, said the sanctions were designed to save the peace process in the West African nation torn by civil war after independence from Portugal in 1975. They appealed to UNITA to meet the deadline. ''The international community, which has invested heavily in helping Angolans toward peace, is in a position now to demand that these substantial efforts not be thrown away,'' Portugese Ambassador Antonio Monteiro said. Under the 1994 deal, UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, agreed to return the 50 percent of the country it seized during nearly two decades of war. UNITA also agreed to demobilize its fighters and integrate them into the national army in return for a role in the government. The United Nations blames UNITA for most of the delays in implementing the plan. The U.N. special representative to Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, has accused UNITA of hiding armed men in remote areas. UNITA denies doing so. U.S. envoy Nancy Soderberg said, however, that UNITA apparently ''has retained and even reconstituted its fighting force. This behavior is unacceptable.'' Soderberg also said the United States was concerned about reports of attacks by government police against UNITA supporters and called for them to cease. The United States supported UNITA during the Cold War in its fight against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the former Marxist group that dominates the government. The Security Council resolution also prohibits all U.N. member states from official contact with UNITA officials in rebel-controlled areas. It bans the ''direct or indirect import'' of all diamonds from Angola except those approved by Angolan authorities, and it bans the sale of mining equipment except with government approval. In October 1997, the Security Council imposed air and travel sanctions against UNITA; an oil and weapons embargo has been in effect since 1993. An estimated 500,000 Angolans died during Africa's longest civil war. c Copyright 1998 The Associated Press