Global Policy Forum

Johannesburg - The United Nations has imposed additional sanctions against Angola's opposition UNITA movement intended to force it to comply with peace accords, but regional analysts doubt the latest measures are enforceable.

Analysts watching developments in the oil and diamond-rich southern African nation say the key issue is not whether the embargo -- which includes a freeze on bank accounts abroad and a ban on UNITA's lucrative diamond trade -- will be enforced but if anyone in the world will even take notice. They point to failed U.N. sanctions in Iraq, Libya and regional ones in Burundi and warn the latest U.N. Security Council measures will only have a negative impact on the peace process in Angola.

``The embargo against UNITA has been a waste of time and even these latest measures will prove fruitless,'' said a Pretoria-based African diplomat. ``They are ignored by the powerful in the Western world and are only followed half-heartedly by those who support them.''

Security Council members on Wednesday called on governments to implement new sanctions against UNITA and threatened further measures if the former rebels continued to defy peace accords it signed four years ago. The sanctions went into force on Wednesday after U.N. envoy Alioune Blondin Beye asked for a delay to give the movement time to comply. Beye, 59, a former Mali foreign minister, five of his colleagues and two pilots from the U.N. Observer Mission in Angola were killed last Friday when their light plane crashed near Abidjan, the commercial capital of the Ivory Coast. They were on a mission to ask West African governments to put pressure on veteran UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi before the sanctions went into effect. Beye's death is expected to complicate the peace process further.

The world body accuses UNITA of failing to meet a key demand -- the transfer of four provinces under its control to government authority. UNITA also has not completed demobilizing its fighters as called for under 1994 peace accords, signed in Zambia, that ended two decades of civil war after independence from Portugal in 1975.

The sanctions, adopted by the Security Council on June 12, orders the freezing of ``financial resources'' or funds generated from property of UNITA as an organisation or of its leaders, their immediate families, and anyone acting on their behalf. They ban anyone from accepting or purchasing diamond exports from Angola except those with a certificate of origin from the Luanda government. Mining and transport equipment is also barred to areas UNITA controls. The council last year imposed air and travel curbs on senior UNITA officials and their adult family members, and ordered the closing of UNITA offices abroad. UNITA was previously the target of an oil and arms embargo that was largely ineffective.

``Sanctions may push up the price of goods in UNITA areas but goods will always get through,'' said a regional analyst, citing porous borders in the region and UNITA's purchasing power. ``The end result will be the enrichment of black marketeers in neighbouring countries and in the international diamond network,'' he added.

Financial experts say that tracking down UNITA bank accounts abroad and those of its leadership is a highly complex matter because many, if not all of them, operate under assumed names. UNITA officials also travel disguised under passports obtained from friendly governments. Blocking UNITA from exporting diamonds is a joke, they say, because Savimbi and his associates have for years perfected a smuggling syndicate that lets them obtain certificates of origin from friendly countries and organisations across the world.

The embargo would also add to a sense of persecution and vulnerability in UNITA's military and political structures and could draw the country closer to renewed war, analysts said. Military analysts believe UNITA has stockpiled enough arms, ammunition, and food and has a standing army solid enough to fight a fully-fledged guerrila war for many years to come.