Leaked Security Council document urges continued UN mission

A draft presidential statement from the UN Security Council, leaked to the press, has called for a continued political presence in Angola despite a recommendation by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to pull out the peacekeeping mission, MONUA.

The draft statement prepared by the “troika” of Angola observer nations - Portugal, Russia and the US - was reportedly leaked by the latter two countries to wire services, news organisations said.

However, a source in the UN spokesman’s office stressed to IRIN that the document was just a draft and that no decision had yet been taken. The Security Council was due to meet on Thursday to discuss both the presidential statement and the report delivered by Annan on 17 January, which said the peace process had collapsed and the country had returned to war. “The conditions for the UN as a meaningful peacekeeper have ceased to exist,” Annan told the Security Council.

According to the leaked reports, the draft expresses alarm over the serious deterioration in the Angolan situation. However, it urges the “continued presence of a United Nations Mission in Luanda”, and proposed a resident UN Special Representative assisted by a team whose size, composition and mandate was adapted to present conditions and in consultation with the Angolan government.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has asked that MONUA’s mandate not be renewed when it expires on 26 February accusing the UN of “bias”. In a recent speech, he said the rebel UNITA group had been able to rebuild its military capacity as the Lusaka peace protocol was being implemented.

Meanwhile, Under Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello stressed that humanitarian operations in Angola would continue whatever the decision of the Security Council regarding MONUA. At a press briefing in New York on Wednesday, he however warned that humanitarian organisations would be forced to curtail or stop their work unless the Angolan government and UNITA provided firm guarantees of security and access.

Noting that the total number of displaced people in Angola now stood at 1.5 million, he stressed the renewed threat of landmines which were again being laid in large numbers.

The opening of land corridors from neighbouring countries was under consideration to try and reduce the risk of people starting to cross international borders, especially into the Democratic Republic of Congo, he added.