THREE African leaders at a security summit on Tuesday in Zambia condemned Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi for abandoning a peace accord signed six years ago and pressing on with a 25-year civil war. Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia held a one-day mini-summit to discuss the security situation along their shared borders and concluded that Savimbi was blocking the end of Angola’s civil war. “The heads of state condemned Unita … for its intransigence and failure to implement the obligations it freely subscribed to and embodied in the 1994 Lusaka Protocol,” said a communiqu issued after several hours of talks. Reaffirming support for that peace deal, hammered out under the aegis of the United Nations and the former Cold War powers who long waged a proxy war in Angola, the leaders called for its “urgent” and “full implementation.” -AFP
Tuesday June 26, 2001