ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE #2 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk Wed Sep 17 11:57:04 1997 ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE/ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE/ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE Edition #2 17 September 1997 Subscribe to Angola News Online A fortnightly update of news from Angola! ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE is written by Angolan journalists living in Angola and brings you the news from their point of view. It is assembled and edited by Africa News Network, part of South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement in Denmark. ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE joins our other individual newsletters from Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe, in providing up to date news through our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. These newsletters will be followed, in the very near future, by news updates from other countries in the region. ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE is brought to you through a co-operation between Africa News Network and Inform, Denmark's leading alternative information network. **************************************** In this edition: FEATURE ANGOLA:MAJOR COMMITMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY STORIES: 1. ANGOLA AND CAPE VERDE ABOLISH ENTRY VISAS 2. AID AGENCIES WORRIED ABOUT INCREASED WAR-DISPLACED 3. HOSPITALS CLOSE LABORATORIES OVER REAGENTS SHORTAGE 4. OPPOSITION LEADER TO SERVE JAIL TERM 5. MOROCCO DENIES REPORTS OF MERCENARIES HELP TO UNITA 6. MISA ANGOLA NOW ON THE CARDS 7. SLEEPING SICKNESS HITS NORTH COUNTRY 8. OIL SPILL IN SOYO REGION 9. LUANDA SHORT OF POWER 10.PEACE MEDIATOR DELIVERS UN SANCTIONS RESOLUTION TO UNITA FEATURE ANGOLA:MAJOR COMMITMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Angola is increasingly attracting the attention of the international community with the United States taking the lead in the efforts to help the Angolan government attain peace, seeing this as the most important factor for wider foreign investment opportunities in the country. In the first two weeks of September, halfway through the expiry of the 30-day deadline for UN Security Council sanctions on Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement, Angola had unprecedented successive visits from senior officials of foreign governments interested in boosting bilateral cooperation ties, and a large group of US businesspeople keen to invest in different economic spheres including oil, mining, fisheries, telecommunication. The week long tour of 39 US businesspeople, first of its size in the history of the relationship between the two countries, was seen in Luanda as signalling optimism from the White House at the outcome of the ongoing peace process in Angola, since the United States is seen as the ultimate regulator and "manager" of the events in Angola. Leader of the mission was Mr Edmund Djarnette, president of the Angola-US chamber of trade and industry, former and first US ambassador to Angola after the United States extended diplomatic recognition to the Angolan government in 1993. Political observers view the visit of the US business group as support not only to the peace process but also, and especially, to the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, a switch which apparently irked Jonas Savimbi who for years enjoyed help from the American administration. To UNITA, although the tour was reported to be aimed at identifying potential investment fields, the mission apparently sounded as if it were a way to pressure the movement to speedup the implementation and completion of the pending issues in the Lusaka protocol. Looking back into recent history no one, politician or man in the street, would 10 years ago have imagined such a shift in the US administration's Africa policy, where Jonas Savimbi, traditional ally and for years widely labelled as a freedom fighter, could end up merely being dropped. According to recent reports in Luanda and further to the usual dilatory manouvres of Jonas Savimbi - who took up arms again in 1992 after rejecting UN-endorsed general multiparty polls over frauds allegation - the United States has uncovered information that UNITA continued to re-open clandestine airports in areas under its military occupation and equip them for future military actions. It was also reported that this would now cause the White House to provide the Angolan government with military help which would include sales of very sophisticated air equipment to help curb the persisting violations of Angola's airspace and to to help if UNITA remained reluctant to surrender its hidden armament and rearmed its soldiers. The US ambassador to Angola, Mr Donald Steinberg, dismissed as "irresponsible and inaccurate" the information that his government was planning military help against UNITA. "The US government has constantly declared that it does not support any actions by any of the Angolan parties that might lead to the resumption of the tragic civil war which has already caused many deaths and so much destruction over the last two decades," the ambassador said, reiterating his country's commitment to a peaceful conclusion to the implementation of the Lusaka peace protocol. However, a US expert in African affairs said in Luanda that there was a group of American soldiers who proved to be efficient in Bosnia and who have negotiated with the Angolan government on training the Armed Forces. "They (the group) were okayed by the US government but they are not the government and it is not final whether those trained would be used against UNITA, foreign countries or other groups (...)," said Professor Gerard Bender to a local radio station. Whatever the context might be, it is clear that the United States has strong economic interests in Angola and would be unwilling to tolerate a new military conflict in the country which would push everything back to point zero. However, it is also said that UNITA has not confirmed that it will lay down its guns and use politics to fight and this has been confirmed by deserters from UNITA, including former secretary general, Eugenio Manuvakola. The three most crucial aspects of the Lusaka peace plan are the full demilitarisation of the UNITA movement, the hand-over of all its territorial locations and the transformation of its "Vorgan" radio into a non-partisan facility. UNITA claims that as a political party it can hardly survive if it is, for example, without the diamond mines that it controls in the diamond producing Lunda-Norte province, in northeast of the country. This would be a natural result of an eventual surrender of all its force and the strategic areas it holds. It would appear now, because UNITA has fully rearmed its military force and stands ready for a new war, that it will not be easy for the United States to help by extending military aid to the government as a way of pressuring Jonas Savimbi not to go ahead with his military plans. According to Bender, the US senate circles which used to support the Savimbi cause substantially reduced after 1992 and have not enough power to halt president Bill Clinton from taking tougher actions against UNITA. For its part, Portugal, which together with the United States and Russia forms the troika of observers on the Angolan peace process said that with about 15 days to go before the sanctions deadline expires, UNITA have taken no concrete steps to stop the sanctions from being applied as recommended in the UNSC 1127. Visiting Portuguese secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation, Jose Lamego, reaffirmed in Luanda that his government was ready to close all UNITA offices in Lisbon if the movement failed to comply with the UNSC resolutions. Like Portugal, many other countries including South Africa and Cape Verde, have promised they would strictly implement the diplomatic and economic sanctions recommended in the UNSC 1127, once in force. STORIES: 1. ANGOLA AND CAPE VERDE ABOLISH ENTRY VISAS Angola and Cape Verde, two member States of the newly proclaimed Community of Portuguese speaking countries (CPLP), have abolished entry visa requirements between the two nations, according to a statement signed by prime ministers Franca Van-Dunem and Carlos Veiga recently in Luanda. The decision is part of 15 general cooperation agreements reached during a five-day official visit of Cape Verdean premier Carlos Veiga at the invitation of his Angolan counterpart, Fernando Franca Van-Dunem. Under the pact, nationals of one country will be allowed to freely enter and stay in each other's nation for a period not longer than 90 days without the necessity of entry visas. The two states have with this become the first CPLP members to enter such a visa-free deal. Up to now Angolans could dispense with entry visas only for Namibia but recently Portugal also entered into an accord with Angola to cut entry visas for holders of official passports. Under the newly signed Angola-Cape pact, those willing to extend their stay after 90 days will be subject to the formal regulations provided in the internal legislation relating to foreigners for each country . The other agreements refer to cooperation between different companies of the two countries. According to Mr Carlos Veiga, "with the partnership we have entered, SONANGOL (Angolan oil company), will have shares at the Cape Verdean oil and lubricants supply company "ENACOL". Angola has a crucial role to play in the development of the southern Africa region and for the dynamising of the group of the five African Portuguese speaking countries. "Angola and Cape Verde have written a new page in the history of the excellent relations already existing," Mr Carlos Veiga said. Expressing solidarity towards the Angolan government in the efforts to achieve peace, he said that Cape Verde will implement all UNSC resolutions on Angola. Mr Carlos Veiga is founder of his MPD party which won Cape Verde parliamentary elections in 1991 and 1995. After getting a degree in law in 1971, he started his professional career in Angola's Bie central province one year later. 2. AID AGENCIES WORRIED ABOUT INCREASED WAR-DISPLACED Aid officials have said continued UNITA massing of troops and armaments especially in the central, southern and northeastern regions of Angola is both halting the resettlement of refugees and increasing the number of war-displaced people. Reports from the Huila southern province said recently that the presence and constant movement of troops and war material has stopped war-displaced people from returning to their homes at a time when "all arrangements have been finalised" by the social welfare ministry in conjunction with international humanitarian organizations to implement the resettlement programme. In the northeastern Lunda-Sul province UNITA were also reportedly busy deploying troops and preparing to fight if the September 30 sanctions are enforced. Over 1,000 civilians were said to have fled their homes at UNITA-held areas in the central Bie province. "In the present context, the government will once again have to rely on the good will of the international community to ensure that displaced women, orphans and the elderly can survive until the next harvest," a bulletin issued by the UN aid coordination unit (UCAH) states. It further states that delays in the implementation of tasks stipulated in the Lusaka Protocol have reduced the massive resettlement programme, originally scheduled by the government of Angola to be completed by August 1997, and as a result there has been an increase in the number of war-displaced people, but no figures were provided. 3. HOSPITALS CLOSE LABORATORIES OVER REAGENTS SHORTAGE Laboratories in 70 per cent of Angola's capital Luanda hospitals cannot open regularly for clinical tests as they lack reagents, health workers have said. The central maternity hospital "Lucrecia Pahim" is one of the hospitals with laboratories that have almost closed and where like all the rest, patients have to pay high prices for tests. This is because the workers claim that when their hospital is short of reagents they buy them on the black market with their own money and use them for those patients able to pay. Reports on this caused prime minister Franca Van-Dunem to make an urgent visit to the main hospitals in Luanda after which he announced that his government was going to cease "free health" services to help improve quality. "The State cannot keep on giving everything for free. The population has to comparticipate so we can improve the quality of our health services," the premier said adding that "I do not have the habit of interfering with the business of (my) ministers but, because of the serious problems the hospitals are going through I have got to react". Ordinary citizens contacted by "Angola News Online" expressed disappointment that the prime minister could publicly give the implicit idea that he had "remained unaware of the terrible conditions in our hospitals and to realise this only after such a lightning visit". Health services in Angola are formally free of charge but everyday life shows that patients end up paying for treatment. Doctors, nurses and other staffers charge for their service on a private basis apparently to compensate for the poor salaries they get from their employers. A Luanda man remarked jokingly that "the prime minister forgot to explain which money the population would use to eventually comparticipate in the health service bill". 4. OPPOSITION LEADER TO SERVE JAIL Mr Alberto Neto, leader of Angola's opposition PDA party, was on September 5 sentenced by a Luanda court to three months in jail and a fine equivalent to US$2,050 plus an indemnity to Cardinal Don Alexandre do Nascimento, of US$6,000 "for moral damages". After the Luanda Catholic archbishop sued Mr Alberto Neto for libel, the court opened a two-week hearing which ended up confirming that the defendant, who initially pleaded not guilty, had "committed crimes of defamation" against both the cardinal and the Catholic church. The cardinal claimed that Mr Alberto Neto in 1996 wrote to the then secretary general of the United Nations, Butros Butros Ghali, accusing the former of being bribed by the government with US$40,000. Witnesses told the hearing that they had been given a copy of the letter by the sender himself in which he informed the former UN secretary general that the cardinal had initially received US$30,000 from the government "to become a subproduct of corruption," before he was later offered US$10,000 for him to attend the 1995 donor conference on Angola held in Brussels. "The Catholic church is a 'sub-contractor' of corruption starting at the top of the structure," the PDA leader was quoted as writing in the letter which also accused the church of drug and diamond trafficking, illegal sale of arms and introduction into Angola of US one hundred dollar fake banknotes. In the 1992 elections Mr Alberto Neto came third in the presidential polls (after president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi), but his PDA would not score a single seat on the parliament. He is the second opposition party leader to stand trial this year, following on Mr Mfulumpinga Landu Victor of "PDP-ANA," who was acquitted of accusations of forging supporters names to have his party legalised with the supreme court in 1992. 5. MOROCCO DENIES REPORTS OF MERCENARIES HELP TO UNITA Morocco has denied that its nationals have joined mercenaries of other countries to train UNITA soldiers and supply them with large quantities of arms in the northeast region of Angola. According to the first secretary of Morocco's embassy in Luanda, Mohamed Mulili, such information is simply meant to blacken the image of his country. A recently deserted UNITA official, Maj Miguel Florindo, said there were mercenaries from South Africa, Lebanon and Morocco training various UNITA military units stationed in the diamond producing northeastern region of Lundas, and also at Andulo in the central highland Bie province. He said the armaments being unloaded in the Lundas region comes from South Africa. 6. MISA ANGOLA NOW ON THE CARDS The Southern Africa Media Institute in Angola (MISA ANGOLA), is preparing to apply for its MISA membership at the upcoming congress planned for October this year. A source from the MISA ANGOLA board of governors told Angola News Online that all the misunderstandings initially impeding the acceptance of their membership had now been settled. He said there was "a cabal triangle" which in vain attempted to "impede our adhesion to MISA" because they did not want the current staff to be elected, allegedly because they included members of the state's security apparatus and excluded those from UNITA "which is not true". According to the source, the triangle involved was formed by journalists Fernando Lima in Mozambique, Mario Paiva in Angola and the former MISA executive director Math Aetsile Leepie, who "fought for MISA Angola to be run by themselves or other persons closer to them". The MISA ANGOLA board of governors was inaugurated a year ago. 7.SLEEPING SICKNESS HITS NORTH COUNTRY Public health officers in Angola's northern provinces of Kwanza-Norte and Zaire have said urgent measures are needed to fight increasing reports of Sleeping Sickness (African Trypanosomiasis), amongst the people of the regions. Reports from Kwanza-Norte say 47 people have died out of the 1551 diagnosed in the first four months of the year in the areas controlled by the government, but area chiefs say that many more people were dying every week in their villages where people cannot afford the bus fare to hospitals. "The situation is critical. We lack both technical material and funds to set up brigades tasked with following up on this," said a health ministry delegate, who noted that among the foreign non governmental organizations involved in the fight against the disease, only Norwegian People's Aid implements an "active prospection". According to the local coordinator of the Belgium's "Doctors without Borders," Mrs Agnes Sobra, various facilities will be installed this year in the municipalities of Golungo Alto and Anguengo, where diagnostic campaigns will also be started. Also in the northern Zaire province, the local government authorities claim that they are extremely worried about the escalating spread of the tsetse fly in the region, and a small hospital specifically designed to treat cases of Sleeping Sickness is being erected at the Nzeto municipality, 195 kilometres from the oil-rich Soyo village on the Atlantic coast. 8. OIL SPILL IN SOYO REGION It has been reported from northern Angola's oil-rich Soyo region that crude oil leaked from pipelines run by the Belgian "Fina Petroleos" firm have created an oil disaster of "alarming proportions" over an area of approximately 500 square metres. Reports from the region say that many in the area have been made "seriously sick" and the place has turned into "a dark swamp" as the oil leaked, jetlike, for 24 hours before it stopped. The real reasons for the leak have not been detected but it is believed that the degraded state of the pipelines might be behind the accident. The inhabitants of the area warned they would loot the local offices of Fina Petroleos if the company remained reluctant to look after the health condition of those affected by the spill, especially the children. 9.LUANDA SHORT OF POWER Power supply to Angola's capital city of Luanda has been seriously restricted since the second week of September with the electricity company relying on alternative generators. No clear reasons have been given but the power supply company (Edel), said the shortage was partly caused by a sudden and unusual lowering of the flow of the Kwanza river where the dam is based and also because of very obsolete cables used in the network lines carrying electricity from the dam to Luanda. Edel said the city would continue to be supplied in this way for quite some time until the river gets back to its normal strength which is expected to happen only if there is substantial rainfall. As a result, inhabitants have been advised to cut down on their power consumption unless they have own private generators. 10. PEACE MEDIATOR DELIVERS UN SANCTIONS RESOLUTION TO UNITA UN Angola peace mediator Alioune Blondin Beye, on September 8, officially delivered to rebel leader Jonas Savimbi the UNSC resolution 1127 which recommends diplomatic and economic sanctions on his UNITA movement if it fails to contribute to an effective implementation of the Lusaka peace accord. On return to Luanda he told reporters that he took the opportunity to remind UNITA that there is an urgent need for the movement to actually accomplish the three main tasks of the Lusaka protocol which are full demilitarisation, normalising of state administration throughout the country, and transformation of the Vorgan radio into a non-partisan facility. Savimbi was also said to have received a letter from US president Bill Clinton conveying the concerns and views of his administration regarding the peace process in Angola. Mr Beye said although displaying frustration at the Security Council decision to impose sanctions on UNITA, Mr Savimbi reiterated his commitment to the Lusaka peace deal. ******************************** ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE/ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE/ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE A fortnightly update of news from Angola! If you would like to receive more information about ANGOLA NEWS ONLINE, or about our other newsletters or upcoming newsletters, please send an E-mail to: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk If you know of anyone else who might be interested in subscribing to Angola News Online, please let us know and tell them about us! 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