OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 10.00PM.
TEMPORARY United nations special envoy to Angola Lakhdar Brahimi has left the country saying that the risk of all-out war had receded.
“I have no guarantees,” he told reporters on departure, “but I think there is no longer a risk of all-out war this week or the week after. There is a window of opportunity. Whether good use will be made of it I don’t know.”
Brahimi has persuaded the Angolan government to tone down it’s heated propaganda campaign against Unita.
On Thursday Isaias Samakuva, Unita’s chief negotiator, returned to Luanda after being recalled to Unita’s headquarters in eastern Angola in June.
Brahimi said the task of pushing the peace process forward will rest on the shoulders of the newly appointed UN special envoy, Issa Diolo.
However Brahimi said he did not know how the peace process would be completed. “No country can be at peace if there are two armies,” he said.