By Nicole Winfield
January 12, 1999
The Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to consider imposing new sanctions on Angola's UNITA rebels after the downing of two U.N.-chartered planes.
The approval came as rebels announced they had located the downed plane that was still missing.
The council voted 15-0 on the resolution despite U.S. concerns that doing so would only hinder efforts to bring about peace in the southwest African nation.
The resolution expressed the council's willingness to consider severing UNITA's telecommunications links and its intention to reinforce other sanctions that include a ban on diamond exports. UNITA has raised an estimated $3.7 billion through diamond sales, according to the human rights group Global Witness.
The resolution also condemns the downing of the two aircraft and demands that UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi cooperate immediately with investigations into both crashes.
Two U.N.-chartered C-130 cargo planes with a total of 23 people on board crashed within a week of each other -- on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 -- over the central highlands of the southwestern African nation. Rebels and government troops had been fighting in the area since early December.
A U.N. team reached the site of the first crash Friday, near the city of Huambo, 300 miles southeast of the capital, Luanda. The United Nations said Saturday it had little hope of finding survivors among the 14 people on board.
U.N. officials said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity, that UNITA has located the second United Nations-chartered plane. Portuguese state radio Antena 1 said UNITA had informed the United Nations that there were no survivors.
UNITA officials were not immediately available for comment. The United Nations has demanded that the rebels allow them to reach the second crash site, believed to be in a mountainous area near the rebel stronghold of Bailundo, 30 miles north of Huambo.
In Angola, a top UNITA rebel vowed Tuesday that any new sanctions would not restrain the rebels.
``You only punish someone with a whip if that person is sensitive to it,'' said UNITA Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba Gato. ``We've already shown we're not sensitive to that whip.''
Gato added that cutting off the phones would strain relations between the United Nations and the rebels even further. ``How would they contact us then?'' Gato said by satellite phone from the group's highland base.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh said the United States voted for the resolution because of concern about the fate of the passengers and crew aboard the planes.
But he questioned the wisdom of considering telecommunications sanctions against rebels at a time when the United Nations needs to be in constant contact with them -- both for rescue matters and humanitarian concerns.
``We believe that the only way to resolve this ongoing conflict is through negotiations and not through military action,'' Burleigh said. ``A negotiated settlement cannot be achieved without the ability to communicate with all parties.''
