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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Angola: Back from the Brink? |
Author: | Venter, Denis |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | Africa Insight |
Volume: | 28 |
Issue: | 3-4 |
Pages: | 109-117 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Angola |
Subjects: | civil wars peace treaties Politics and Government Economics and Trade Military, Defense and Arms Ethnic and Race Relations |
Abstract: | In November 1994 the MPLA and UNITA signed peace protocols in Lusaka that provided for a political and military settlement to the devastating civil war that has plagued Angola since independence in 1975. Despite his compliance with the protocols, for UNITA's leader Jonas Savimbi, they were too much the diktat of a victorious MPLA. Under the Lusaka Accord, UNITA should have demobilized all its troops, but, although ostensibly totally demobilized, UNITA is alleged to retain a force of 30.000 armed men. In their own ways, both the MPLA and UNITA have done their best to undermine the Lusaka protocols. Both sides are again preparing for a military resolution. After four years the Lusaka peace agreement had still not been implemented, even though the process should have been completed within 15 months. UN sanctions, imposed in October 1997, intended to cut off the supply of war materials to UNITA, proved largely ineffective. It is no longer a question of whether, or when, war will resume in Angola. It has already started. The creation of a 'peace faction' in UNITA, UNITA Renovada, later named the Democratic National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA-D) has left Savimbi increasingly isolated and marginalized, but has had no impact on the war. |