The Angolan government signed a peace agreement on Tuesday with a group that has fought for self-rule in the country’s main oil-producing region, but other armed separatists said they would continue their struggle.
Senior governing party politicians and military chiefs signed the deal along with Antonio Bento Bembe, who said he represented the Cabinda Forum for Dialogue, an umbrella group that has sought the enclave’s independence.
Cabinda is a tiny coastal province north of Angola, wedged between Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with about 500 000 people. The fighting began in 1975 after accords that granted Angola’s independence from Portugal also said that the territory was Angolan.
United States and European oil companies have invested billions of dollars in offshore oil platforms in Cabindan waters.
The peace deal grants the territory a special administrative status and an amnesty for guerrillas who surrender their weapons.
The government expects about 500 guerrillas to come out of the jungle.
The deal came after a ceasefire agreement signed last month.
However, the deal was rejected by the armed Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, known by its Portuguese acronym Flec.
Flec president N’Zita Tiago said Bento Bembe was thrown out of the Forum in February and was not authorised to negotiate on behalf of Cabinda.
”He has no credibility,” Tiago told the Associated Press by telephone from Paris, where he lives in exile.
”We want to negotiate peace for Cabinda, but not this way,” he said.
Tiago declined to give information about Flec’s troop strength.
Human rights groups have accused the Angolan military of atrocities in Cabinda and claim government officials have embezzled millions of dollars in oil revenue. The government has denied the charges. — Sapa-AP