September 29, 1999
Johannesburg - After a series of recent diplomatic exchanges, South Africa and Angola this week appeared to have mended ties in a relationship marred by Angolan accusations that Pretoria had for years turned a blind eye to support for the UNITA rebel movement dating back to links established with the rebels during the apartheid era.
According to African diplomats, the breakthrough came on Tuesday when President Thabo Mbeki received a special envoy from Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos. The envoy, Joao Lorenco, secretary- general of Angola's ruling MPLA party, and the South African government, declined all comment on the contents of that message.
But the diplomats said it had cleared the air since the most difficult period on 15 September when Luanda publicly called for sanctions against South Africa over its perceived assistance to UNITA. Reassurances were conveyed twice in the past month by South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma at meetings with her Angolan counterpart in Tripoli, Libya, and New York.
South Africa, the Angolans were told, was doing everything it could to comply with UN sanctions against UNITA and seeking to cut all covert support the movement has enjoyed in over 20 years from officials and allies of South Africa's apartheid-era government.
Among the major concerns of the Angolans, according to sources contacted by IRIN, was the fact that after the country's first democratic election in 1994, arms, munitions, food and logistic support found its way to UNITA from bases in South Africa. This included, the sources said, some 44 airports from which cargo planes departed for UNITA strongholds in Angola. The authorities closed down 30 of them as they tightened the noose in a move which forced UNITA to look primarily to air shipments from Ukraine.
The Angolan government also protested at the fact that South African journalists had gone to interview the UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, saying the local media were propagating his views and further enhancing his public profile. Questioned by journalists this week, Mbeki's spokesman, Parks Mankahlana said: "The matter, as far as we are concerned, has been clarified."
Clearing the way for peace talks
It has, said the diplomats, now paved the way for South Africa to explore with Angola the possibility of a new round of peace talks in a country where over 20 years of civil war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. UNITA, they said, had contacted a number of governments in the region in recent weeks seeking renewed talks - even though the rebel movement itself is widely held responsible for breaching last year the UN-brokered 1994 Lusaka Protocol peace accords to which both parties were a signatory.
Following South Africa's role in helping bring the protagonists in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the peace table, they said South Africa, and Mbeki in person, were widely viewed as critical mediators.
In Pretoria, said the sources, mediation is viewed as the only way out of a military stalemate in Angola. According to UN figures, approximately 1.7 million people are currently internally displaced, having been forced to flee their homes. The humanitarian community in Angola, is concerned that fighting which resumed since last December has only enabled it to assist some 600,000 people.
"Given this situation," an African diplomat said, "it may be that the Luanda envoy conveyed to Mbeki on Tuesday the view that military advantages are giving it a chance to explore new talks from a stronger position." This week, the Angolan army was reportedly making headway in its battle for the control of the UNITA central highlands stronghold in Bailundo.
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