Peace incomplete until solution found for Cabinda

As the peace process between the Angolan government and UNITA rebels takes root, attention is beginning to focus on the long-standing but neglected separatist conflict in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave. The government has expressed willingness to open talks on limited autonomy for Cabinda, the news agency AFP reported on Monday. This followed an appeal last week from Nzita Tiago, the leader of the rebel group FLEC-FAC, for mediated talks to end fighting in the troubled northern province. The government has ruled out full independence for Cabinda. But, Joao Lourenco, secretary-general of Angola's ruling MPLA told a local radio station: "If their (FLEC's) position is that Cabinda is part of Angola and we can consider some sort of autonomy for that part of our national territory, then fine." Attempts to negotiate a ceasefire and hold talks on the future of the enclave in the past have failed. On Friday, AFP reported that a long-running government offensive in the region was continuing. At a two-day peace and national reconciliation conference last week in the capital, Luanda, a coalition of NGOs called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Rafael Marques, the representative of the human rights watchdog Open Society, said Angolans should "not be deceived by the idea that there has been peace in the country since the signing of the 4 April ceasefire between the government and the former rebel group UNITA". He said ongoing hostilities in Cabinda continued to claim an increasing number of lives. "Although opinions vary, owing to the complexity of the problem, the common element is the urgent need to find a solution for the Cabinda conflict, because as long as it continues there can be no effective or complete peace in Angola," Father Raul Tati, Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Cabinda told participants at the conference. The conference also called for direct and inclusive negotiations with a view to determining the political and juridical status of the enclave. Separatists argue that because Cabinda was administered separately from the rest of Angola in Portuguese colonial times, it should have formed a separate state on independence. "It is important to implore those who through their position of authority hold the future of the country in their hands, to make every effort towards the final and definitive end to the tragic cycle of wars in Angola, putting an end to the conflict in Cabinda and choosing the peaceful resolution of its problems," Abel Chivukuvuku, UNITA member of parliament said. "If this means heeding the voice of Cabindans, then so be it. If we have to move towards re-thinking the type of state which Angola should be, opening the door to the possibility of internal autonomy within Cabinda, then so be it," he added.