UNITA revamps structure, seeks peace

UNITA rebels on Wednesday announced the formation of five new teams designed to end their international isolation and to resolve the country’s 26-year civil war, one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, Reuters reported on Wednesday. In a statement sent to Reuters in Johannesburg, UNITA said the co-ordinating commissions - covering political, administrative, judicial and military issues - were formed at the party’s recent annual congress.

Leading the five groups are UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, party vice-president Antonio Sebastiao Dembo, secretary general Paulo Lukamba Gato, UNITA lawyer Celestino Kapapelo and army chief General Geraldo Ukwachitembo Abreu, the report said. The statement condemned the ruling MPLA government for intimidating “all patriots who defend the need for debate as a way of identifying the root causes of our national problems”. It said the five commissions would address ending UNITA’s international isolation, caused mainly by United Nations sanctions. “One of the priority roles is the diplomatic struggle for the total or partial lifting of sanctions imposed on UNITA members and their closest families to facilitate dialogue to bring peace in our country,” Reuters quoted the statement saying.

UNITA has been fighting the Luanda government since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The latest round of fighting erupted in 1998 after a peace accord crumbled. The United Nations began sanctions that same year and has intensified them in an effort to bring UNITA back to the negotiating table. The UNITA statement also called on church groups in Angola, rich in oil and diamonds, to help seek an end to the war that has killed more than one million people and uprooted almost four million more from their homes. “The church has an important role to play in order to end hatred and the culture of violence,” the statement said.