Quartering areas closed, resettlement problems continue

The Angolan government declared all quartering areas of former rebel soldiers and their families officially closed on Thursday, despite logistical problems that continue to hamper the process of resettlement. UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Angola, Erick de Mul, told IRIN there was "still a number of people that have stayed behind near the [demobilisation] camps" of ex-UNITA soldiers. State news agency Angop reported that social welfare minister, Joao Baptista Kussumua declared the camps, which had housed some 480,000 ex-UNITA fighters and their families, officially closed on Thursday. De Mul said the plan was to move ex-combatants and their families from the quartering areas to transit centres, from where they would be transported to their areas of origin or resettlement. However, logistical problems had created bottlenecks at the transit centres, which had not been equipped as holding areas for large numbers of people for extended periods. "The logistics, in terms of getting people to areas of origin or destination, have been much more complicated than was foreseen. As a result, in many cases, instead of moving in a straight line to places of destination, people are received in transit areas, where conditions are often rather poor," De Mul explained. "Normally, people would not stay [in transit centres] for more than one or two days, but given the logistics problem, their stays are extended," he added. There had also been complaints that demobilisation kits were not being distributed to people during the resettlement process. In February a report by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Security Council identified non-payment of severance packages to ex-combatants and non-delivery of resettlement kits as factors complicating an already difficult situation. His report noted that "payments by the government to ex-combatants have been irregular and not universal". The resettlement kits include agricultural inputs and tools. De Mul said the "plan was to [resettle] people and the kits would come later ... we are still hoping that will happen". "Personally, we would rather see that people would move [to areas of resettlement] together with the kits [in hand]," De Mul added.