Angola
Peace hopes grow in Angola

afrol News, 15 March  - For the first time in years, there is no fighting in Angola. Yesterday, the government's armed forces embarked on a ceasefire to show they were serious on the peace offers after Jonas Savimbi, the UNITA rebel leader, was killed by government forces on 22 February. Angolans hope the decades of disrupting civil war might come to an end.

The Angolan government said it considered "the country to be living in a unique moment of its history for joining wills that will lead definitively to the end of the current armed conflict." Therefore, it announced the Cessation of "all offensive military movements," and the ceasefire - the first in years - started yesterday. 

Yesterday, the Angolan Armed Forces were reported to have orderly observed the countrywide ceasefire ordered by the government. Reports from De Malange, one of the provinces most affected by the latest military movements, confirmed that weapons were indeed silent. The local population had received the news of the ceasefire "with much joy," reports said.

According to an interview with the spokesman of the Angolan Presidency, Aldemiro Vaz da Conceição, made by the Portuguese radio RDP, the government unilaterally had launched the ceasefire to "open the path of dialogue and collaboration between military leaders so that one could achieve a general ceasefire as soon as possible."

Conceição also said that the government in Luanda invited the UNITA rebels to resolve their problem of leadership in the movement, avoiding militants, so that UNITA could return to its role as a normal and legal political party. 

Also the government communiqué by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, announcing the cease of hostilities underlined the importance of UNITA transforming into a national political party, which would be fully integrated "into the national polity." 

- The government will present a proposal to the National Assembly for the approval of an amnesty for all crimes committed in the ambit of the armed conflict, aiming to ensure the necessary juridical and political rights to the promotion of national reconciliation process," the statement added. Also UNITA militants were invited to contribute to the transformation. 

Today, the Secretary-General of Angola's ruling MPLA party said the government would follow a two-track policy in seeking a peace deal with UNITA rebels, discussing military issues with commanders in the bush and political issues with the UNITA-Renovada faction of the rebel movement which is represented in parliament.

Yesterday UNITA-Renovada president Eugenio Manuvakola told the UN media IRIN that UNITA fighters still in the bush had no choice but to accept a peace deal with the government. Manuvakola, who heads the Luanda-based faction of the rebel movement that split from Jonas Savimbi in 1998, said the rebels had no reason to continue fighting following the death of their leader, Dr Jonas Savimbi, last month. There have, however, not been any statements from the UNITA rebel on the issue so far.

While the rebels are in a difficult situation, having lost Jonas Savimbi and other key leaders during recent battles, Angolans are hopeful the much awaited truce could lead to peace. Reports by the Angola Armed Forces that there had been no military action in the country for at least a week further contributed to Angolans' peace hopes. 

Contributing to hope that the truce would finally bring peace to Angola were media and Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) reports that no military action had been reported in the country for at least a week. Also, truck and bus drivers began travelling alone along a key route in Kwanza Norte province, Lusa reported on Thursday - an action that would have resulted in probable death or injury from guerrilla attack in the past three years.

The UNITA rebels are in a very difficult situation, both military and economically. During the last years, the rebels have suffered large territorial losses to government troops. This has also affected the financial side of the war, as both diamond production and exportation has become more difficult. 

With the death of Savimbi and several other leaders, the rebels lost a uniting figure, a brilliant military leader and much of the contact network attached to these leaders. Under these circumstances, UNITA seems to have little to gain by staying in the bush, especially when the Luanda government's peace offer seems so generous.

Sources: Based on Angolan govt., RDP, IRIN and afrol archives

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