OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday, 9.00PM.
INFLUENTIAL members of the Angolan rebel movement Unita have announced a split from Unita leader Jonas Savimbi and said they are committed to the peace process.
In a manifesto issued in Luanda, the defectors said: “The current leadership of Unita, under the direction of Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, has shown itself incapable of honoring the commitments freely undertaken in Lusaka.” The manifesto referred to the 1994 United Nations-brokered peake accords aimed to end the 20-year civil war in Angola.
The document, signed by “officers and members” of the Unita, including Savimbi rival Eugenio Manuvakola and several suspended ministers, announced the creation of a “temporary leadership”. It said Savimbi’s policy was “contrary to the interests of members of the party and the Angolan people”.
The statement said the group, whose level of support within Unita is unknown, “definitively renounces war, embraces peace, democratic political struggle and national reconciliation,” so that the peace accords can finally be fully implemented.
On Monday, Unita representatives were suspended from the government and parliament in punishment for “flagrant violation of the Lusaka peace protocol”.
The communique was read out by Jorge Valentim, suspended hotels and tourism minister. Beside him was Manuvakola, who signed the Lusaka accords and had been in open opposition to Savimbi for more than a year. Also present were the defence, interior and assistance and social reintegration ministers, all suspended on Monday.
The splinter group’s manifesto called on “all comrades of the party still in arms to immediately reject war and respect the clauses of the Lusaka protocols, in particular the demilitarisation of Unita and normalising of state administration throughout national territory including Bailundo, Mungo, Andulo and Nharea[Unita’s four main strongholds].”