ED STODDARD, Pretoria | Wednesday 6.45pm
ANGOLA’S Unita rebels are believed to be bartering South American cocaine for weapons and stolen vehicles from South Africa for use in their war with the government, a senior United Nations official said on Wednesday.
”We have reason to believe that cocaine from producer nations like Colombia is being smuggled to Angola’s southern border with Namibia via Brazil,” the official, who asked not to be named, said.
The Drug Enforcement official said the drugs are believed to come through Brazil because of the Portuguese language connection shared by the two countries.
”This cocaine is then used by Unita to barter for weapons and stolen vehicles – things of more immediate use for the war effort — from South Africa. The weapons and vehicles are brought through Namibia,” the official said.
He added that a number of drug busts in Namibia has put investigators onto the drug-arms trail. If Unita is buying South American drugs, it could do so with proceeds from diamond smuggling.
However, a regional analyst said, while a Brazil-cocaine-Unita connection is possible, it is doubtful that the rebels are trading drugs for weapons from South Africa.
”Unita deals in bulk and gets its weapons by container and by air,” said Jakkie Potgieter, an analyst with the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
”It is plausible that Unita may be bartering cocaine for vehicles from South Africa and other commodities, but not weapons. You simply could not bring weapons in the kind of bulk that Unita deals in through Namibia,” he said.
He said there are groups in the Johannesburg-Pretoria area and the Western Cape of South Africa bringing marijuana and scarce goods such as car batteries to southern Angola via Namibia in exchange for weapons.
”But this is not big-time weapon smuggling. They bring back an AK-47 or two from Angola,” he said. — Reuters