British government gets tough with Savimbi

The British government has called for tougher action to be taken against Jonas Savimbi, leader of the Angolan UNITA rebel movement. In a speech over the weekend to an Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) conference in London, Peter Hain, Foreign Office Minister and British Minister for Africa said: “I want to deliver a clear message to UNITA: get rid of Savimbi as your leader and quickly. If you do that, UNITA can be as part of the solution as it has been part of the problem.” Hain said the British government was not targeting UNITA supporters, or the ordinary people in areas that were controlled by UNITA. “Our target is UNITA’s leader Jonas Savimbi. He is in his own context as bad as Saddam Hussein or Slobodon Milosevic. The blood of hundreds of thousands of Angolans drip from his hands,” Hain said. He added that there had to be more effective implementation of UN sanctions and a “clear commitment” to blocking UNITA’s supply routes. “To continue to drift along with sanctions against UNITA which do not bite exposes the rest of the world to charges of hypocrisy,” he said. Hain added: “His fuel and the munitions and weapons he needs to sustain his murderous activities come in through various means. Often on transport lanes with Ukrainian connections. Sometimes with the pilots well known to agencies monitoring African conflicts. Always via neighbouring African countries, frequently with the assistance of corrupt officials whose government stretch credulity when they claim ignorance.” Hain said that the British government had started targeting Savimbi’s bank accounts and that the Bank of England had already frozen several accounts. “The international community must co-operate with the UN. We must track down Savimbi’s assets whether these are secretly deposited in nearby West Africa or elsewhere. The individuals, companies and governments involved need to be named and shamed. I give notice that we will ‘out’ them if we can.” According to Hain a fresh approach was needed and that if “UNITA cannot be destroyed then it must at least be seriously weakened and forced to negotiate.” He said that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had a major role to play as they were the key regional organisation. “Surely they should be ones helping to find an African solutions to this African problem,” he said. According to Hain, “SADC will not fulfill its promise whilst Angola is strangled by civil war.” He welcomed the recent announcement by the diamond giant De Beers that it would not be buying further diamonds from Angola for fear that it might be adding to “Savimbi’s war chest”, but said that there should be full transparency and that oil companies who worked in Angola, such as BP-Amoco, Elf, Total and Exxon, had to be also more open with the international community and international financial institutions. Hain said that it was time for the West to own up to its responsibilities for the war in Angola. “Most of Europe including Britain turned a blind eye or gave a nod and a wink from the early 1970’s when Washington and Pretoria armed Savimbi, financed him and sold him arms and landmines in a shameful and shameless policy which allowed Angola and it people to be all but destroyed simply because of the MPLA Government’s communist ideology.”