OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 11.00pm.
THE United Nations special envoy to Angola, Issa Diallo, said on Monday that he would continue to negotiate with Unita leader Jonas Savimbi, even though the Angolan government has said it will arrest Savimbi and any of his supporters on sight.
Diallo said on a UN daily radio programme that Unita’s “internal quarrel” should not be allowed to affect the peace process. However, he said, he does not rule out talks with the five former members of Savimbi’s inner circle who last week rejected him as a leader and set up an alternative Unita leadership in Luanda.
Angolan Chief of Police Fernando da Piedade has meanwhile ordered police to use force against Savimibi’s die-hard fighters. Every military operation launched by “armed gangs” should be met with a “firm response,” Da Piedade told police commandersat a meetin gi Luanda.
“Armed gangs” has been the usual explanation for attacks by members of Unita, which was supposed to have disarmed to comply with UN-brokered peace accords signed in Lusaka in 1994.
The Angolan government has said it will obtain international recognition for the alternative leadership established last week, and has suspended all contact with Bailundo, Savimbi’s main stronghold in the centre of the country.
On Saturday the alternative Unita leadership named Eugenio Ngola Manuvakola, a former secretary-general of the movement who signed the Lusaka protocols for Savimbi, as their delegate to the joint commission responsible for monitoring the peace process.
Until the end of last week Unita was represented on the commission by Savimbi loyalists. Their position is now unclear. However they are still moving freely around Luanda. They have accused the government and police of intimidating them, claiming that their cars and bodyguards, which were granted as part of the peace pact, have been withdrawn.