FRIDAY, 4.00PM
THE Southern African Development Community will hold a summit in Angola on September 30 to formulate a regional approach to possible United Nations sanctions against Jonas Savimbi’s Unita rebel movement, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday.
The UN has threatened to impose far-reaching sanctions against Unita by the end of this month, should it continue to fail to apply the 1994 Lusaka peace accords aimed at ending the country’s prolonged civil war.
Speaking in Cape Town, Pahad said: “We in South Africa are very concerned that if sanctions are imposed, as a region we must collectively ensure that the sanctions are realistically applied. We want to have a regional approach to any sanctions that are imposed.”
However, South Africa hopes Unita will understand the realities of the situation and will meet the UN security council’s demands, he said.
On reports that South African territory is still being used to transport arms and other material to Unita, Pahad said the department of foreign affairs does not have the capacity to investigate the unsubstantiated claims. However, these allegations, and claims by the Democratic Republic of Congo that some ex-Zaireans are using South African territory for purposes of subversion, have been handed over to the “relevant security structures”, he said.
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