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Monday, April 29, 2002 - Web posted at 9:21:35 pm GMT

SCORES of battle-weary Unita soldiers have surrendered themselves to the Namibia Defence Force (NDF) at Rundu from where they are being trucked to the various demobilisation points in war-ruined Angola.

Among the 70 Unita rebels who surrendered last week were nervous-looking child soldiers clothed in rags and torn shoes.

The older rebels were also adorned in tattered Unita and civilian clothing.

Some appeared malnourished.

The NDF commander in the Kavango Region, Lieutenant Colonel Abed Mukumangeni, told The Namibian at the weekend that it took two weeks for the the dejected-looking soldiers to walk hundreds of kilometres from former Unita strongholds to Namibia.

He said that over 1 200 NDF soldiers who were deployed inside Angola had deliberately chased Unita rebels from areas in Cuando Cubango province where they usually received food from the villagers.

Mukumangeni said the NDF had destroyed several tons of food belonging to the rebels in order to deprive them of food supplies as part of a strategy to crush the armed movement.

Followers of the late rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, had handed over their AK-47 and G-3 rifles to NDF members who have so far transported 70 rebels to established mobilisation points at Kapembe in southern Angola.

The rebels are slowly moving from their bush encampments in areas such as Likua on the northern part of Cuito River because poor communication means news of the ceasefire is still filtering through.

"Some (Unita) members have not been informed (about the demobilisation). They are very scattered in the bush and it is very difficult for all of them to get the message at the same time," said Mukumangeni.

Hilda Carreira, the press attache at the the Angolan Embassy in Windhoek, said that since the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) signed a ceasefire agreement with rebel commanders, more than 9 000 rebels out of some 55 000 Unita soldiers had entered 33 demobilisation areas across Angola.

General Pedro Neto, the General Chief of Staff of the National Air Force, announced after a meeting of the Joint Military Commission between the FAA and Unita on Thursday that 5 000 demobilised rebels will be integrated into the national Police and into the FAA.

Carreira said the Angolan government had committed itself to supplying food, clothes, fertiliser, seeds, hoes and other tools that will assist the integration of demobilised soldiers into civilian life.

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