ANGOLA’S ruling party this week renewed an offer of pardon to rebels it has been fighting for the last 25 years, ahead of independence celebrations at the weekend. The president of the Angolan parliament, Roberto de Almeida, said the pardon would come if members of Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) “renounced crime and turned their backs on a shadowy past.” Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos earlier this year offered pardon to the rebels and to Savimbi, if he agreed to lay down arms. Pardon, De Almeida said, “consists especially in the will to consider each of us like a brother, to hold out a hand to him, to kiss him and to live in peace and in freedom. For us, peace is a fundamental priority.” – AFP