UNITA peace plan not yet enough - Church

Angolan church leader Reverend Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga has described a UNITA peace plan released last week as interesting but not particularly significant - yet. Ntoni-Nzinga, executive secretary of the Inter-Ecclesial Committee for Peace in Angola (COIEPA), which has been central in trying to create conditions for peace talks, told IRIN on Monday that a ceasefire was absolutely necessary for talks to begin.

“Looking at the agenda for negotiations that UNITA sets out in the proposal, a ceasefire comes right at the end. I find this strange. We can’t really discuss all these other serious issues without a ‘silencing of the guns’. Our appeal is that there must be a ceasefire first. There is nothing that can come out of this process unless there is an end to military actions,” he told IRIN.

In its new overture UNITA proposed, among other things, the formation of a transitional government comprising of the ruling MPLA, UNITA and the opposition National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). It also mooted the creation of a “supreme peace council”. So far the government has rejected the proposal, sticking to its position that the only mechanism for peace remains the Lusaka protocol signed in 1994.

“My view is that the Lusaka agreement is basically the agreement that UNITA and the government agreed on in terms of pacifying the country. We think they should commit themselves to its full implementation. I think when we call for the implementation of the agreement, we should acknowledge mistakes on all sides,” Ntoni-Nzinga said.