Ruaridh Nicoll in Luanda=20
AT dawn, in a hangar at Luanda’s airport,=20 blue-beret troops of the largest United=20 Nations peacekeeping mission in the world=20 stand in the rising heat.
Each of them knows that the UN’s mission in=20 Angola officially finishes at the end of=20 February, but they do not expect to go=20 home. Instead they make their way to a=20 whining Hercules cargo plane, beginning=20 their journey to Saurimo, one of the many=20 war-ravaged cities in Angola’s interior.
At their headquarters, David Wimhurst, the=20 spokesman for the UN Angola verification=20 mission (Unavem-3) repeatedly points to a=20 clause in a draft resolution the UN=20 Security Council produced in December 1996.
“The pace of withdrawal will be=20 commensurate with progress achieved,” it=20 reads.
“We’re not going to just up and leave,” he=20 says. “Our withdrawal is linked to the=20 peace process.”
The withdrawal will start with the=20 departure of a Uruguayan battalion in early=20 March and continue with another battalion=20 every month.
But progress is slow here. Last weekend=20 Angola’s political leaders again failed to=20 meet their deadline for forming a=20 “government of national unity and=20 reconciliation”. Nor could the two parties=20 in the talks – the governing MPLA and their=20 opponents, Unita – come up with a definite=20 date for when it might be formed.
The peace process is another effort to=20 bring the MPLA and Unita together and end=20 20 years of civil conflict. The UN first=20 became involved in Angolan in 1988, to=20 verify the withdrawal of Cuban troops=20 backing the government against the=20 apartheid and CIA-supported Unita.
Then in 1991 it tried to ensure that the=20 ceasefire between the two sides agreed in=20 the Bicesse peace accords held. This second=20 mission collapsed after Unita refused to=20 accept the results of an election in late=20 1992.
The UN returned in force in 1995 to monitor=20 progress on the Lusaka Protocol, which set=20 out the provisions for the creation of a=20 unified government comprising the country’s=20 unreconciled leaders.
Last week a television reporter, worried=20 that his organisation was wasting thousands=20 of dollars being in Angola, asked Alioune=20 Blondin Beye, the UN special=20 representative, whether the government=20 would really form at the weekend.
Beye laughed. “You’re spending thousands,”=20 he said. “We’re spending a million dollars=20 a day.”
Last October Unavem-3 had about 8 000=20 personnel involved in everything from=20 negotiating the peace to clearing landmines=20 and rebuilding bridges. It also runs the 15=20 camps where Unita soldiers are supposed to=20 be quartered.
“I see myself as a peacemaker not a=20 peacekeeper,” says Pereira Pillar, a=20 Brazilian colonel who is the UN commander=20 in one of the wilder regions. “We are=20 currently in a ceasefire, which means just=20 a pause in the war.”=20
Back in the UN hangar in Luanda, the troops=20 talk of home. Unavem-3 will die this year=20 but an observation mission will be born.=20 And formation of a new government will move=20 haltingly on, with the UN in its wake.