Ceasefire in Angola

Subject: Ceasefire in Angola
From: GUEST,Bagpuss skiving at work
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:11 AM

Just to cheer us up from events in Palestine. Things sometimes do get better.

From the Guardian website

Thursday April 4, 2002

Angolan rebels today signed a ceasefire agreement with the government to end almost 30 years of civil war. The agreement - which, according to the Angolan government, includes a pledge to abide by the terms of a 1994 peace accord - follows the killing on February 22 of Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi by the army.

Savimbi had commanded Unita's struggle for power for almost 30 years. The war, which began after the southwest African country's 1975 independence from Portugal, is believed to have killed at least 500,000 people. Roughly four million - about a third of the population - have been driven from their homes.

The two sides are to hold further talks on political issues relating to the peace process.

The chiefs of staff of the government and rebel armies signed the ceasefire deal at 11am at the parliament in Luanda. Hundreds of guests, including foreign ambassadors and UN officials, were due to attend.

The full terms of the ceasefire are not yet published. But the government says it includes the demobilisation of about 50,000 Unita soldiers, as well as their families, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.

The United Nations is due to monitor the demobilisation at 27 regional centres.

The government says it will take between four and nine months to integrate the rebels into society.

The agreement was negotiated during two weeks of talks in Luena, in eastern Angola. Only state media were given access to the talks.

The government army captured or killed dozens of Unita's senior officers early this year before tracking down Savimbi in a remote part of eastern Angola.

Unita's secretary-general, Paulo Lukamba Gato, heads a committee of rebel military commanders who have assumed the group's interim leadership.

Three peace deals - signed in 1975, 1991 and 1994 - all unravelled.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos says he wants to organise national elections as soon as possible.

Much of Angola's infrastructure has been destroyed in the fighting. New minefields have been planted over the past year.

The government financed its war effort through the sale of offshore oil resources. Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer after Nigeria, and is one of the world's foremost areas for oil exploration.

Unita - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - sold diamonds on the black market to buy weapons.

Subject: RE: Ceasefire in Angola
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 12:55 PM

Thaks for the details. This has been another long pointless civil war, and I hope for the sake of the Angolan people we've finally heard the last of it.

Subject: RE: Ceasefire in Angola
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:55 PM

The best news of the year, if it can turn out to be true. This has been a catastrophe on a scale on which even September 11th would hardly even be visible. And yet it's been virtually ignored.

A civil war, but sponsored from outside, which is the case with the most part of civil wars. Well, hold our breath and hope it's over - and hope that the other foreign sponsored (and generally ignored) wars in Africa (like the one in the Congo) can wind down as well.

Subject: RE: Ceasefire in Angola
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:10 PM

And to celebrate, here is a link to a page with some sound files of the magical Joao Bosco Mwenda, from Angola, playing and singing. And here is one of them (RealAudio streamed.)

Subject: RE: Ceasefire in Angola
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 12:44 PM

The best news of the year deserves to rise to the top of the threads once more.