UNITA welcomes govt plan to assist former soldiers

Senior UNITA officials on Thursday called on the government to elaborate on a plan aimed at reintegrating thousands of ex-combatants into civilian life. The former rebel group said that although the plan, presented on Wednesday, was "workable" details of its implementation remained vague. "We are analysing this plan now and although we are pleased with the political message behind it we regret that we were not part of its drawing up. We do not want to obstruct the process at this stage, for the sake of national reconciliation, but we would like the government to make it clear how the plan is going to work technically," said UNITA political committee member Horacio Jumjuvili. The government's two-year social reintegration programme entails the socio-economic reintegration of ex-soldiers, the return and resettlement of populations directly affected by the armed conflict and vocational training for the ex-combatants. Jumjuvili said the former soldiers, who were demobilised in the wake of the 4 April ceasefire, would be trained in fields such as farming and nursing. More than 70,000 demobilised soldiers were expected to benefit from the initiative, estimated to cost about US $55 million, 50 percent of which would be funded by the government. "The government must follow through with the political willingness to execute this plan. Obviously, it [the government] doesn't have the financial capacity to deal with this tremendous challenge alone. We are calling on international partners to assist with this process," Jumjuvili said. Nearly 80,000 former rebel soldiers and more than 350,000 members of their families are presently living in 42 camps in the country. To assist with the programme, UN Special Representative to Angola, Ibrahim Gambari on Wednesday announced that the Joint Commission had created a technical subgroup to look at social reintegration of the demobilised soldiers. The commission is composed of representatives of the UN, UNITA and the government, and is responsible for implementing the outstanding tasks of the 1994 Lusaka Protocol, which forms the basis of the Angola peace process. In another development, the government this week paid the first part of an agreed subsidy to UNITA. Following its transformation from a rebel group to a political party, UNITA was entitled to funding to support its political activities, said Jumjuvili. "The money will go towards improving UNITA's political activity throughout the country. It will help rebuild the party's infrastructure that was destroyed during the war so that we can grow as a political party," he added.