Kampala | Wednesday
FORMER Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim on Tuesday appealed to the world to get ready for a challenging task of demining in Angola after peace is restored, following a ceasefire agreement signed on April 4.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of a four-day symposium in Kampala on peace in the Great Lakes region, Salim accused the recently slain Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), of responsibility for failure in the past to pacify Angola.
”Millions of mines were still undetonated in the fields of Angola and they threaten more casualties even after the war,” Salim said, adding: ”Savimbi’s death had created a new momentum for peace.”
”Not that we celebrate his death, but Savimbi was a very difficult person to deal with. It was Savimbi who sabotaged earlier efforts for peace. His death has made it possible to implement new dynamics and I am convinced that the ceasefire agreement signed recently will last,” Salim said.
Salim called for ”commitment to, not only from the Angolan government alone, but also from the international community by investing in inculcating a culture of peace in the Angolan people.”
”There is need to mobilise the international community for the programme of demining Angola, as millions of mines still in Angola could cause more casualties after the war,” Salim said.
The symposium, organized by the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation to which he Salim is chairman, is attended by about 200 delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzanian and host Uganda.
The symposium is part of celebrations to mark 23 years since Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown by a combined force of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles on April 11, 1979. – Sapa
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