Washington, DC — Peace is the only option, said Angolan Vice Minister of External Affairs Georges Chicoti and Unita's interim leader Lukamba Paulo "Gato", who is also Coordinator of the rebel group's Caretaker Commission. "For the first time... Angola is at peace with itself," Chicoti told the House subcommittee on Africa Thursday. He thanked Unita "for having cooperated fully with the Angolan government."
Acknowledging that peace efforts have been tried and failed before and indirectly recognizing continuing suspicion that Unita will not accept a political result it does not like, Gato told the subcommittee, "We do not have a hidden agenda.... We want to leave no doubt about our intention to make this process irreversible."
In two previous peace efforts, overseen by the United Nations, Unita failed to disarm. But in response to questioning by subcommittee Chairman, Edward R. Royce (R-CA), Gato declared that Unita will not go back to armed conflict. "Our commitment is for Unita to be a de-armed party. It is a firm commitment."
Since the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) April 4, 80,000 Unita soldiers have been quartered along with 300,000 of their family members, both Chicoti and Gato told the committee. "As soon as the Angolan government concludes the Lusaka Protocol with our partners Unita," said Chicoti, "a process of returning to normalcy will be engaged." That means, he said, concluding debate on a revised constitution and developing "an election agenda."
Citing continuing "great concern" over camps where 80 percent of Unita soldiers have so far been quartered, the Unita leader pledged that all of his group's troops would soon be. "We believe quartering 100 percent [of Unita fighters] is the key to peace."
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The conditions of those in newly accessible areas (about 800,000) are particularly worrying." the United Nations office in Angola said in a statement Wednesday. "IDPs [internally displaced persons] and refugees have begun to return to their areas of origin. Support for their return will be a key priority." UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has sent his Special Advisor on Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, to assess what more the UN could do to assist.
Both the United Nations and the Angolan government have been the target of sharp criticism. On Tuesday Medecins Sans Fronteires (MSF) released a statement in Luanda accusing both of being "unacceptably slow to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of at least half a million Angolans". They have allowed "political wrangling over the demobilisation process to take precedence over the urgent needs of the Angolan population," charged MSF
"Angola is today going through a decisive moment," Reverend Dr. Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga, Executive Secretary of the Inter-Ecclesiastic Committee for Peace in Angola told the subcommittee in his testimony. "Peace means more than a mere silencing of the guns."
Stability, national unity, a "process of transformation", and "avoiding the politics of exclusion" are as necessary as the ceasefire agreement. Civil society must "participate actively in the national debate."
