July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Thursday, July 19, 2001 - Web posted at 9:37:51 GMT

UN team evaluates Unita sanctions

LUANDA - A UN team was due to arrive in Luanda yesterday to determine how well sanctions are being imposed on the nation's main rebel movement, the UN Office for Angola said.

The panel will probe allegations by the Luanda government of violations of the sanctions the United Nations has slapped on Unita, which limit the rebels' ability to buy weapons and fuel and to sell diamonds, the office said in a statement.

The rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) has relied mainly on its illicit diamond trade to fund its 26-year insurgency.

The UN team will also verify whether travel restrictions on Unita leader Jonas Savimbi have been followed.

Created last year, the UN panel comprises Juan Larrain of Chile" Lena Sundth of Sweden" Ismael Seck of Senegal" and Ana Frangipani of Italy.

The international community has blamed Unita for prolonging Angola's civilwar and the movement has been under UN sanctions since 1993.

One non-governmental organisation here, the Angolan Anti-Military Initiative for Human Rights called for the "urgent" lifting of the sanctions, saying that such a move would "motivate (Unita) to respond to peace negotiations".

Angola's civil war, which broke out in 1975 following 14 years of fighting against the country's Portuguese colonial rulers, resumed in earnest in 1998 after the collapse of a 1994 peace accord.

At least 500 000 people have died in the civil war, while four million people have been displaced, out of a total population of 12 million.

- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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