Luanda

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said late on Thursday that Angola’s first post-war presidential election should be held a year after parliamentary polls. While he did not give a date, his ruling Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), maintains that elections be held in 2006 on the proviso that a new Constitution is approved.

Angola has expelled 418 foreigners, mostly Congolese, as part of its ongoing crackdown on diamond traffickers, police commander Tito Munana was quoted as saying in newspaper reports on Friday. The foreigners were part of a group of 1 005 people detained last month as part of Operation Diamond launched by police and the army in December last year to end trafficking in resources.

Angolan police have rounded up about 400 illegal workers, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the northern Zaire province and plan to deport them, an official has said. The province on Thursday joined Operation Diamond, a nationwide crackdown on foreigners who are in the country illegally and involved in diamond trafficking.

Six people have died after an anti-tank mine exploded in the southeastern Angolan province of Kuango Kubango, national radio reported late on Sunday. The explosion occurred on Friday evening when a vehicle carrying six people, including two newly appointed provincial officials, hit the explosive.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is to meet with United States President George Bush next month to discuss oil and plans to hold Angola’s first elections since the end of the civil war two years ago. The weekly Semanario Angolense reported that the Angolan president and Bush ”will be able to discuss issues like security and stability in the region and the democratisation of Angola”.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals accused of diamond trafficking in Angola are being held in ”inhuman conditions” in Angolan jails, said the non-governmental organisation Voices without Voices on Wednesday.

Landmines and torrential rains have prevented UN aid workers from distributing supplies in Angola for the past month. Landmines are a constant problem in Angola, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, but the danger is worsened during periods of heavy rain.

Luis Paolo’s life revolves around four parked cars. They belong to senior United Nations staff, and he washes and guards them each working day. For his labour he earns 2 000 kwanzas (R162,50) a month — not much to live on in Luanda, one of the world’s most expensive cities. This is Paolo’s story.

Eight people starved to death in the southern Angolan region of Benguela after torrential rains destroyed crops, the Jornal de Angola daily said on Thursday. According to the newspaper, about 60ha of farmland planted with crops have been destroyed since the rains began early this month.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Monday that conditions for a general election would be ripe within two years

The Angolan army is still at war with secessionists in the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda, wedged between the two Congos, the daily Jornal de Angola said on Friday quoting an armed forces commander in the province.

When news spread across Angola last year that war had finally come to an end, Freta Capaita cajoled his four children to return to the village where they were born.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Friday that force should only be used against Iraq in ”extreme circumstances”. Angola is one of six non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Once-forgotten Angola is suddenly fielding calls from US President George Bush and other leaders, hosting diplomats and apparently collecting pledges of aid as the world lobbies for its UN Security Council vote on the Iraq issue.

The torment of Angola’s civil war, which finally ended less than a year ago, is at the heart of a feature film currently being made in the capital Luanda to give new life to a long-dead industry.

Angolan journalists on Wednesday expressed solidarity with staff of a privately owned weekly, Angolense, which faces legal action from senior officials accused of embezzlement.

SOME 25 000 Unita rebels in Angola have turned themselves in to
demobilisation camps since the movement signed a ceasefire with the army on
April 4 to end 27 years of civil war, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said
on Friday.

Angola’s civil war may have ended, but the behaviour and attitudes of its people are still dominated by violence, with women often on the receiving end.

At least 500 people have died of famine in the last four months in camps in Angola holding members of the former Unita rebel group.

The 14-nation Southern African Development Community opens a two-day annual summit Wednesday in Angola, as the region faces a growing threat from famine and Aids but also new hopes for peace as the host nation emerges from a 27-year war.

Angola’s Unita rebel movement, which transformed itself into a political party after the oil-rich southern African state last year ended its 27-year-long civil war, on Tuesday began picking a successor to slain leader Jonas Savimbi.

Angola’s army on Monday began choosing 5 000 former Unita rebels to join the ranks of the military under a peace pact bringing an end to almost three decades of civil war.