December 10, 2002
Angola's former UNITA rebel movement welcomed Tuesday the lifting of all sanctions against them by the UN Security Council, saying the move will help efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged country.
"This measure opens the way for UNITA to find solutions to its problems and feel more at ease in contributing in the rebuilding of Angola," UNITA secretary general Paulo Lukamba, known as Gato, told AFP.
The Security Council voted unanimously Monday to lift all sanctions against the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA), which in April signed a ceasefire with the army ending 27 years of almost non-stop civil war. "The lifting of sanctions will strengthen our capacity to intervene in Angola's political life," Gato said, adding that UNITA could henceforth fully take part in the "political race for power".
Some sanctions, most of which dated back to 1993 when the conflict in Angola resumed after previous peace efforts, had already been lifted in the months after the ceasefire, including a ban on travel by UNITA leaders.
The outstanding sanctions lifted on Monday included a freeze of the movement's assets abroad, an embargo on trade in rough diamonds, and restrictions on sales of fuel and arms.
Gato said the unfreezing of UNITA's assets would make little difference since "to tell the truth, UNITA doesn't have any money."
"If we did, we could set up programmes for the social reintegration of our demobilised former soldiers so that they could live with dignity," he added.
About 80,000 former combatants were demobilised and placed in camps, with family members and often in extremely difficult conditions, after the military leaders on both sides signed the April 4 ceasefire.
The government in Portugal, the former colonial power in the southern African country, also welcomed the move by the United Nations and said in a statement that it has urged its European partners to follow suit.
"After the lifting of sanctions by the Security Council and soon by the European Union, UNITA will certainly understand that the democratic political struggle is to be waged from inside the country and not outside," a foreign ministry statement issued in Lisbon said.
Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz had just urged Portugal's EU partners to lift their own sanctions against UNITA, which made peace with the Luanda government after veteran rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed by the army in February.
"With regard to the serious humanitarian situation in Angola, we would also like to encourage our European partners to give Angola swift and effective humanitarian aid in this decisive period," the Portuguese statement said.
At least half a million people are believed to have been killed in the southwest African country's civil war, which has also left some four million people displaced and tracts of the country riddled with anti-personnel mines representing a constant threat to farmers and their families.
In August, Angola was elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, a post it will take up in January for two years.
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