Global Policy Forum

By Jerome Hule

New York, UN - The chairman of the UN sanctions committee on Angola's rebel Unita movement, Robert Fowler of Canada, has recommended measures he says would be able to ensure greater effectiveness of the restrictions. He told reporters in New York Monday on his return from an 18-day mission to southern and central Africa, that the crisis in Angola had reached a point a new approach was needed to address it.

In his report to the UN Security Council earlier, Fowler, Canada's permanent representative to the UN, had made 14 recommendations aimed at curtailing the ability of Unita to make war. One of these called for sanctions monitors to be sent to surrounding countries and for the enhancement of air surveillance by neighbouring countries. He also recommended that countries with significance intelligence outreach be encouraged to work on the bursting of the sanctions.

During his visit to the region covering Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Angola, the Canadian diplomat said he encouraged governments to adopt legislative measure for penalising those found to be violating UN sanctions against Unita. The UN Security Council has over the years imposed sanctions on Unita, including an embargo on arms and trade in diamonds, a ban on the movement of Unita officials as well as a freeze of the financial assets of the rebel movement headed by Jonas Savimbi. Fowler said he had met with diamond companies, including De Beers of South Africa, and they gave their whole-hearted support to the idea of ensuring that Unita's trade in diamond is cut off. The ambassador intends to visit diamond exchanges in Europe in July to enlist their support. The Canadian diplomat said his trip to southern and central Africa had acquainted him with the difficulties countries there have in enforcing UN sanctions against Unita. For instance, he said, most of the countries do not have the capacity to monitor their air space to know who is transiting through it. In this regard, he said, assistance would have to be sought from countries that have the capacity for airspace monitoring. Fowler said his recommendations are to be thoroughly looked into by two panels that have been authorised to investigate the violations on sanctions against Unita and make recommendations on how they can be made more effective. The panels, to be made up of experts, are to be set up later this month.