SA pledges to curb UNITA aid

The South African government has assured the Angolan authorities that they will move to curb covert aid and trade with the UNITA rebel movement. A government spokesman told IRIN on Wednesday the pledge was made by Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo in response to charges by the visiting Angolan foreign minister, Joao de Miranda, that UNITA was still enjoying the support of its onetime apartheid-era allies in South Africa. "The South African government knows what has to be done and we have received positive signals about their efforts to diminish the resources of individuals who still support UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi," Miranda told a news conference. He also added the issue of such assistance to UNITA through Zambia remained an "obstacle" to Luanda's bilateral relations with Lusaka. Nzo had assured Miranda that Pretoria was starting to crack down, and that it would begin by cutting down the number of exit points used by aircraft bound for Angola: "We had more than 100 airports providing an important outlet for those bent on going against the UN sanctions against Savimbi. Work is in progress to stop the clandestine support various elements in the country are still pursuing." Richard Cornwall, an analyst at the South African-based Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN he did not believe weaponry was reaching UNITA from South Africa. But he said up to 150 South African military experts ranging from pilots to weapons instructors and command and control experts were currently serving with UNITA forces as individuals. "More can be done to stop supplies being flown in," he said, "but what can governments like South Africa and Zambia do when end-user certificates list other countries as the final destination and the goods then go further into Angola? It is very difficult." He said there was also the issue of what legal rights governments had to stop traders selling goods on to UNITA. Although South Africa pledged this week to enforce the tightening of UN sanctions against UNITA, technically it would not be illegal to trade with the rebel movement unless the measures were gazetted in a bill outlawing such trade. The same would apply in the case of Zambia, he said. "When UN sanctions were introduced against the former military regime in Sierra Leone, for example, the British government at the time passed the sanctions into British law," he said.