allAfrica.com: Angola: We Must 'Disarm our Minds', says Church Leader (Page 1 of 4)

Angolan leaders from the government, the former rebel group, Unita, and civil society have been visiting the United States in recent days, to tell America more about the prospects for peace and reconstruction after a ceasefire and what many people believe may be the end of the long civil war in Angola.

Reverend Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga, a Baptist minister and respected church leader, is also the executive secretary of the Inter-Ecclesiastic Committee for Peace in Angola (COIEPA a coalition of Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical churches that was instrumental in the movement that helped bring peace to Angola.

In 2001, Ntoni-Nzinga and his fellow COIEPA members were founder members of The Peace Network, a group of 50 civic and religious organizations, which campaigned for a ceasefire in Angola and is working with COIEPA to consolidate peace.

Last week, Ntoni-Nzinga spoke at the first Congressional hearing on Angola since 1997, alongside Walter Kansteiner, the U.S. assistant secretary of State for African Affairs, as well as Angola's deputy foreign minister, Georges Chikoti, and General Paulo Lukamba "Gato", the interim leader of the former rebel guerrilla movement, Unita. The government and Unita signed a peace agreement in April after the death of the Unita leader and almost ten years of war. In an interview with Ofeibea Quist-Arcton of allAfrica.com, Reverend Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga set out his hopes and concerns for the future of his country.

Do you feel that there can now be peace in Angola?

Yes, I do feel that there can be peace in Angola. You put it very correctly, "there can be", which means there is still a lot that must be done for peace to be peace. But the chances, the possibilities and the opportunities are better now than we ever had before.

How to you reach that conclusion?

I say that because, first, we have to draw lessons from where we came from and what we have gone through. Especially for the past 10 years, we have not been able to achieve peace for one main reason: we did not look at the future with the same eyes. We were not of the same mind. There was less consensus among Angolans as such, not just between the two major players (the MPLA government and UNITA), but Angolans at large.

Now a lot of consensus has emerged around the issues that must be addressed for peace to be real peace in the country. And I am talking about people in the civil society movement, the people at large and even among the political players there is a lot of consensus. That too is very important.

Secondly, for the first time, the military took action that even surprised politicians. Of course, the orientation has always been politicians telling them we will do this or that, but they have gone as far as trying to disarm and demilitarize fast with a certain goodwill, which is different from what we have seen so far.

Let me just take another third point, of course. In 1991 and 1994, we thought that addressing the political agenda would enable us to deal with the rest of the issues later. This time, the decision to address the military agenda before addressing the political issues has been very helpful, because it shows how the military has agreed on the way the country should be. With that, we hope there will be no more possibility of returning to war in the same way we did in the past.

There may be other possibilities in the future, you never know, we are a nation. But I think the chances of cultivating a culture of peace, a culture of living together are much better now.

What about the role of the churches? General Paulo Lukambo "Gato", the interim Unita leader, praised the churches, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, for what they had done to try to bring peace to Angola.

Yes, the church has also emerged in a stronger position and as a stronger voice as well, especially the committee which I came to represent here in the United States, COIEPA, the Inter-Ecclesiastical Committee for Peace in Angola. It's in itself not just a voice, but a model for the need of a united voice in the country. The churches, Catholic and Protestant, were not always on the same wavelength. All of a sudden, in the quest for peace, they agreed to come together and to work together for the peace we want. So that is very, very useful.

And it is only the churches that took the initiative to engage in this question and conversation with all the political players, including Unita, the Unita that General Gato is part of. This means that that initiative, to talk to everybody, played a major role to try to create some trust between the different political factions in the country.

Do you feel that politicians in Angola are now truly committed to peace, because of course Angola is such a potentially rich country that people say the war was prolonged so that both sides could profit from the riches, the diamonds, the oil etc?

I think they are better exposed now to the political process, to the peace process and they have shown more willingness now than ever before. I mean three years ago, it wasn't easy for our political leaders to talk about peaceful coexistence, about living in peace and working for peace. They talked about peace in very vague language. Today, they have changed that language. So, they are showing a good willingness which we have to encourage.

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