By Evelyn Leopold
News24April 17, 2001
Despite considerable military inroads by Angolan government forces, Unita rebels are still able to conduct guerrilla attacks and hit and run ambushes, a UN report said on Monday.
Security Council sanctions on Unita's gems-for-arms trade appeared to be working but there were indications that some unidentified planes have been delivering supplies to the rebels, who "continue to raise funds through the illicit sale of diamonds", the report said. In 1998, the council expanded its oil and arms embargo against Unita to include sanctions on the rebel's diamond trade estimated to have earned the group some $4 billion since 1992.
Unita, the Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, is blamed for continuing the southwest African country's war and breaking several peace agreements, the latest in 1998. Government troops are pursuing Unita forces and taking control of towns formerly under the rebels, according to the UN report to the Security Council by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "Nevertheless, with the continuation of its guerrilla activities, Unita still has the capacity to attack positions under government control" including some cities and command posts as well as areas near the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Annan wrote. "The armed conflict in Angola has continued unabated, leaving much of the country insecure," he said. More than 2.8 million people have been driven from their homes since 1994.
Annan asked the Security Council to extend the UN mission in Angola, which consists of a small office, for another six months, saying that fighting is still a fact of life. UN peacekeepers left Angola in 1998 at the demand of the Angola government, which had launched a major offensive against Unita.
Civilians, particularly in rural areas, are still victims of "serious and recurring human rights abuses", particularly by Unita but some by government forces also. The state of Angola's children is particularly dire. A total of 176 000 children under the age of five died last year, according to Unicef, the UN Children's fund. Many children are subject to kidnapping and forced recruitment as fighters. They are often separated from their families following attacks. If they lack legal papers, they cannot use government services, such as health facilities, or go to school. Children are also exploited as labourers, subject to sexual violence and harassed by police, the report said. At the national level, less than half of all children attend school.
