Luanda to put its case to SADC

The Angolan government plans to use the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Maputo next month to ask its neighbours for help in ending the conflict, Reuters reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos might seek military help from SADC to settle the civil war. It quoted a South African diplomat in Luanda as saying that although Angola would be high on the agenda, there would be no military intervention. "Our position is clear on resolving any kind of dispute. We will definitely commit to a peace initiative. Military intervention is never going to happen," the diplomat was quoted as saying. Boniface Chidyausika, Zimbabwe's outgoing ambassador to Angola, said that the diplomatic approach was the only way. "If there is a common approach, a common position, it could be like the Congo. Intervention in Angola could be similar to that in the Congo. But diplomatically not militarily," he said.