/ 8 June 1999

CABINDA SEPARATISTS MAKE HOSTAGE DEMANDS

AN armed separatist movement which is holding four Europeans hostage in the Angolan oil enclave of Cabinda on Monday laid down its conditions for their release in a statement. The movement said that it has been holding the two French and two Portuguese oil industry personnel since March 20 to overcome what it called the world’s indifference to the Cabinda question. In the communique, signed by Cabinda Enclave Liberation Front-Renewed (FLEC-R) president Antonio Bento Bembe, the group makes its key demand “recognition of the right of the Cabindan people to self-determination and independence”. FLEC-R is one of several movements which have fought the Luanda regime for autonomy or outright independence since Cabinda, lying between the two Congos to the north of Angola, was incorporated into its territory at the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975.