Chris Gordon
Angola has ejected Jonas Savimbi from the peace process, with the backing of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), saying that the Unita leader has placed himself “outside the law”. Communication between the government and Unita collapsed after the armed wing of Unita again failed to meet a deadline to hand over their headquarters to government control.
The Angolan President, Jos Eduardo dos Santos has been seeking regional and international backing for decisive action against Unita. He is believed to have offered to withdraw Angolan troops from the Congo in exchange for SADC military and political backing against Savimbi’s predatory maneouvres, although the Zimbabwean government has said that SADC troops will stay in Congo until the crisis is resolved.
At the SADC meeting in Mauritius, which tried to address the vortex of regional conflict, the leaders of the 14 member nations declared Savimbi a war criminal and “incapable of leading his party on to the road of peace in Angola”. In equally strong language, the joint statement at the end of the meeting held Savimbi personally responsible for the slide back into war and agreed that he had rearmed and was recruiting mercenaries.
Unita continues to claim that it is fully disarmed, except for Savimbi’s “presidential” bodyguard and that all the increasing military actions since May are the work of bandit groups, a position that the international community no longer accepts. Indeed, heavy fighting in Kwanza Norte, east of Luanda, in the past few days forced a United Nations aid convoy taking food to people displaced by Unita attacks was forced to turn back to Luanda.
Some shreds of a peace process do remain in Angola. Dos Santos has said his government will no longer deal with Savimbi but will instead recognise and negotiate with the Unita breakaway group led by Eugenio Manuvakola and Jorge Valentim. Dos Santos wrote to the UN detailing his government’s decision to recognise the Unita splinter group.
The question is whether some form of internationally sponsored peace process goes forward. The head of the splinter group, Manuvakola, signed the Lusaka Peace Accords on behalf of Unita; Valentim was a senior Unita negotiator. But the question the international community is asking is how much backing this group this has from the Unita rank and file and how far it is a tool for the government – which Valentim strenously denies. The SADC has recognised the Unita grouping, but as yet the UN has not.
Unita has called a meeting of its Permanent Political Commission in the wake of the SADC statement, to review what it descibes as “the general military and political situation in our country”. Expelling Valentim and the other dissidents from the party is the only move Unita can make, unless the Unita political faction has real support in the group that surrounds Savimbi.
Savimbi will never willingly surrender the leadership of Unita’s military wing and can for the moment command its loyalty.
Dos Santos now wants military backing against Unita. He asked for joint SADC support to neutralise Unita’s war machine, but while commitment to the war in the Congo lasts, he is not likely to get it.