ANTHONY GOODMAN, United Nations | Thursday
A WORSENING of the situation in civil war-ravaged Angola could affect the border regions of neighbouring Namibia and Zambia and further threaten peace and security in the whole subregion, says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
His warning came in a written report to the Security Council recommending a six-month extension, until April 15, 2001, of a small UN office set up in Angola last year after UN peacekeepers were withdrawn from the country when it plunged back into civil war.
The Angolan government and Unita have been fighting intermittently since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. That has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and the uprooting of about a quarter of the population of some 12 million.
In renewed criticism of Unita, Annan said it ”bears primary responsibility for the resumption of the war” by its failure to comply with its commitments under a 1994 peace accord signed in Lusaka, Zambia.
He blamed Unita for refusing to demilitarise and permit the extension of state administration throughout the country.
Despite growing pressure from civil society for a political settlement, ”fighting is continuing with devastating effects on the population,” Annan said.
Government forces had made significant progress in eroding the conventional war capability of Unita, which was resorting increasingly to ”guerrilla-type operations in many areas in the pursuit of its aim to make the country ungovernable.”
”I am concerned that the situation appears to be entering a new phase of political and military impasse. If the present trend continues, the situation in Angola could worsen the security and humanitarian problems especially in the border regions of the neighbouring countries Namibia and Zambia and threaten further the peace and security of the subregion as a whole,” Annan said.
Annan welcomed ”encouraging signs that the government is recognising the need to ensure respect for human rights” and was developing its capacity to that end in cooperation with the United Nations. – Reuters