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   Angola has been at war since 1961. Its history of struggle against colonialism, apartheid, foreign interference and criminal rebellion has now moved into the 21st century. Hundreds of thousands of Angolans have been killed and maimed, while millions are displaced in their own country or refugees in nearby nations.

     Much of its potentially rich economy has been damaged and social development set back by  decades. The impact of the war on neighbouring Namibia, Zambia and, indeed all of southern  Africa, has been extremely negative. Peace has been delayed too long by the so-called rebel  movement, Unita and its shadowy supporters in the underworld of arms peddlers and illicit  traders.  

     Recent reliable estimates claim that Unita has “earned” US$4 billion from the illegal sale of  diamonds to buy arms and other materiel needed to wage war against Angolans.  

    The conflicts have raged despite almost endless attempts by Angolans themselves, by the international community, by the UN and by SADC, which as a community has suffered alongside its member state in order to end the war so Angola and the region may address the urgent tasks of reconstruction, and build social, political and economic development.

    Jonas Savimbi, Unita’s leader, who was declared a war criminal by SADC in 1998, continues to defy the very protocols signed in his name.

    The peace initiatives brokered by Angola and broken by Unita are legion: from the 1991 Bicesse Agreement which led to the 1992 presidential and legislative elections which Unita wrecked by refusing to recognize the outcome of the voting; through the 1994 Lusaka Protocol, abandoned unimplemented in 1997 as Unita defied every aspect of the ceasefire; to the international prohibition of diamond purchases from Unita-controlled areas of Angola in 1998 and the close of the UN’s mission by Angola for its failure to keep peace in 1999 and the establishment of a Sanctions Committee.

    At a peace conference in Portugal in 1991, Savimbi for the first time swore before cameras of the world that he would never go back to war. Elections took place the following year. He lost and the war restarted, causing the fall of cities such as Huambo, Cuito and Malange. Civilians were dying at the rate of 1,000 per day from the direct consequences of the war. The government had no choice but to remobilise and defend itself.

    In absolute disregard of democratic norms, the West demanded that the Angolan government share power with Savimbi, instead of urging him to accept the result of the election.

    “If that is the rationale (of sharing power with those who have lost elections), why are we obliged to go for elections if the objective is to share power,” Georges Chikoti, the Angolan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs told a recent workshop in Maputo, Mozambique. The workshop, which was attended by academics and diplomats, was an effort to renew waning international commitment to the peace process in Angola.

    “In all democracies in the world, it is the winning party that rules while the minority stays in the opposition. Why a double standard in Angola,” said Chikoti , a former Unita official, who blamed this Western hypocrisy for continued conflict in the southern African country.

    Nonetheless, the government gave in and agreed, through the 1994 Lusaka agreement, to share power with Unita. Positions in government were given to Unita, while deputies went into Parliament. Savimbi though never came to Luanda to take up his post as vice-president.

    “If Savimbi did not fulfil the provisions of Lusaka (accord), there is no other negotiation that will suit him,” declared the deputy minister of a man who has lost the trust of his own lieutenants, most of whom have since deserted him.

    Each time Angola has returned to war, the consequences on the civilian population have aggravated. Today four million people are displaced and in need of humanitarian aid; more than two million have died since 1975; more than 400,000 have been orphaned and 80,000 mutilated.

    And, although UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan says Unita “bears the responsibility for the return of war to Angola” the international community seems unwilling to do little more than wring its hands in frustration, unable to implement the absolute sanctions it imposed on the movement which it describes as “bandits and terrorists.”

    The most recent report from Annan to the Security Council in mid-July says Unita continues to engage in guerilla activities across parts of Angola creating insecurity and fear among civilians.

    The Angolan government called for a boycott of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Togo in July because President Gnassingbe Eyadema, among others, had been implicated by the UN sanctions committee in assisting Savimbi with arms and fuel shipments in exchange for illegally mined Angolan diamonds.

    The issue of “conflict diamonds” was first brought to international attention when Ambassador Robert Fowler revealed in a detailed report to the UN the extent of illegal diamond sales to perpetuate the Angolan terrorism of Unita. Fowler called for the sanctions against Unita to be extended to diplomatic sanctions against third parties who were in violation.

    The sanctions have met with some success with the recent decision in Antwerp, Belgium by the diamond industry to choke off the traffic in diamonds of war fuelling Unita’s ability to continue its terror, along with rebel movements in Sierra Leone and DRC. Although these diamonds constitute only four percent of world production, processes have been set in place to eliminate them and impose strict controls against illegal movement of the uncut stones.

    While the Angolan army has scored some major victories over Unita in the last six months and now controls vast areas of its national territory, Unita’s attacks on civilians in remote and isolated areas continues.

    The humanitarian situation is appalling in parts of the countryside. Some four million people remain vulnerable and displaced and face widespread hunger and malnutrition. Emergency aid is getting through to more people but transport remains precarious in many areas due to violence and the war-scarred road networks. Children are the most severely affected, one in three dies of malnutrition before five and 53 percent are stunted.

    Rumours which have been circulating that the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is holding “secret talks with Unita” have been roundly denied by the speaker of Angola’s Parliament, Roberto De Almeida who criticized those who are pressuring the government to once again engage in peace talks with Savimbi.

     He said it was unfair to try and force the Angolan government to move “from dialogue to  dialogue, from accord to accord, without conclusive results”.  

    De Almeida stated that the government was committed to military actions to force the accomplishment of the Lusaka protocol, the demilitarization and demobilization of Unita and the extension of state administration throughout all of Angola.