OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday, 7.00PM
THE United Nations observer mission in Angola has opened an investigation into last week’s massacre of 215 people in the north-east village of Mussuku in Lunda-Norte province. The mission has sent police and observers to investigate the killings, which the Angolan government has blamed on Unita rebels. Unita has denied any part in the massacre.
The European Union has meanwhile imposed sanctions on Unita in line with those imposed at the beginning of July by the UN. The EU announced in Brussels on Tuesday that the sanctions include a ban on imports from Angola of diamonds without a government certificate of origin and the freezing of funds held outside the country by Unita, its officials and family members.
Meanwhile South African deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad told a parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Tuesday that a renewal of conflict will be “a disastrous situation that will [have an] impact on the whole economic thinking … of how we develop the region.”
Both the National Party and the Freedom Front have called for South African intervention in the crisis.