ANGOLA: Army conscripts must report for duty

Angolan Defence Minister Kundi Payhama said that all men born in the year 1978 could be conscripted for army service and that they had until the end of the month to report for duty. In a national radio broadcast, he said UNITA rebels were putting "strong pressure" on the provincial capitals of Kuito and Huambo in the central highlands, and on Malanje east of Luanda. The conscription call was therefore fair, Payhama said, "in view of the situation the country is facing". The broadcast monitored by the BBC quoted him as saying: "Those youngsters should not be evasive, and not waste time because they will be fulfilling their sacrosanct duty." He also said "appropriate measures" were being taken to prevent UNITA forces capturing the three provincial capitals and that arrangements were being made for a counter offensive "that will lead to the definitive defeat" of UNITA and its leader, Jonas Savimbi. According to UN figures, an estimated 700,000 people have been displaced since December when fighting resumed after the breakdown of the UN-brokered 1994 Lusaka Protocol peace accords. In a separate development, the government television network reported at the weekend that Morocco had pledged to stop providing assistance to UNITA in compliance with UN sanctions against the rebel movement. "A senior Moroccan official said the country's foreign ministry will be responsible for expelling Jonas Savimbi's men likely to be in Morocco," it said.