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Four South Africans jailed in Angola for allegedly supplying UNITA were freed and have returned to home, the government said on Wednesday. "We welcome the release on human grounds but we will continue to caution South Africans who travel to Angola to respect both Angolan law as well as UN Security Council resolutions," the Associated Press reported South African Foreign Ministry spokesman Marco Boni as saying.
The four South Africans arrived on Tuesday night aboard a private plane. The four had been jailed since 21 January, when their DC-4 aircraft, which had taken off from Johannesburg, was intercepted by an Angolan air force fighter jet and forced down at the southern Angolan town of Menongueon. Four others aboard, including the pilot and crew, have already "mysteriously" been released, Boni said.
Angola accused the men of carrying diamond-mining and construction equipment to the UNITA movement's base in the remote central highland town of Andulo.
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