A recent report has dramatically changed the United Nations tone towards Unita, writes Victoria Brittain
Defectors from the Angolan rebel group Unita alleged in a videotape shown to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Unita’s leader, Jonas Savimbi, personally ordered the downing of two UN airplanes a year ago, killing 23 passengers and crew members.
“We had instructions to bring down any type of aircraft that was flying within range of our anti-aircraft guns. Savimbi said the UN aircraft were in the service of the government,” said one of the men.
The video shows six interviews with Unita defectors, including General Jacinto Bandua who was in charge of Unita’s logistics.
According to the defectors, a rebel named Gregorio downed both UN aircraft – on December 26 1998, and January 2 1999 – with a shoulder-held rocket launcher.
Savimbi then ordered his men to destroy the planes’ black boxes, burn any human remains and bury the evidence to prevent any effective inquiry by the UN.
The evidence, along with a report from the Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler, the chair of the UN sanctions committee on Angola, also detailed Unita’s trade of diamonds for arms. The trade, which breaks sanctions, has kept the war going since Unita rejected the results of the 1992 UN- supervised elections.
Fowler promised a fuller report in March which would name people, countries and companies involved in breaking the UN sanctions.
Fowler’s report finally nails any chance of a political future in Angola for Savimbi, once the protg of successive United States presidents, the CIA and their allies in Africa, and various West European governments, including Britain.
Many UN officials failed for years to reveal publicly what was known privately about Unita’s responsibility for the war. However, Fowler’s work has dramatically changed the UN tone on Unita, and Savimbi has been declared a war criminal by the Southern African Development Community and the Organisation of African Unity.
“If the outside world ceases and desists from providing military assistance to Savimbi, he will not be able to maintain this war,” Fowler told the Security Council.
“Responsibility for this war has been squarely and unequivocally laid at the feet of Savimbi.”
Fowler said Unita put out tenders to the international arms market, with brokers flying into Savimbi’s headquarters at Andulo in the central highlands.
“The supplier would offer the whole package, delivered to Andulo,” Fowler said. “They would settle the price in diamonds.”
Fowler added: “There is a huge volume of information out there indicating – crystal clear – that Unita’s arsenal is essentially East European.”
One witness said that the airport at Andulo was receiving 15 to 20 flights a day, including Illushin 76s and Antonov 72s carrying T74 tanks.
Andulo and much of the central highlands is now in government hands but military officials in Luanda have warned that the war is not over. Tens of thousands of refugees have poured into eastern Zambia in the last few days, while northern Namibia has also seen incursions by Unita troops.