UN’S ANGOLAN ENVOY MEETS ANNAN

SENIOR United Nations envoy to Angola Issa Diallo is to deliver a report this week to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Angola’s civil war and worsening humanitarian plight. The agenda for their meeting is likely to include UN plans to withdraw from Angola and the Diallo’s recent closed-door meeting with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The UN’s mandate in Angola expires on February 26 when most of its remaining 1000 military and political staff are expected to start pulling out. Dos Santos has agreed to allow human rights monitors to stay in Angola but has ignored a Security Council request to base a representative in the country and keep a small political and military mission there.