Security officials meet

Zambian and Angolan security officials met on Thursday in Lusaka to discuss the situation along their common border ahead of a ministerial meeting aimed at reducing tensions between the two countries.

The joint Security and Defence Commission began talks on Wednesday to prepare the ground for a meeting between defence and home affairs ministers on Friday, sources close to the talks told IRIN.

The dialogue follows Zambia’s accusations in May that Angolan troops had repeatedly crossed the border and terrorised local communities in a campaign aimed at flushing out UNITA rebels from eastern Angola. Some 10,000 villagers in western Zambia have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the insecurity.

An Angolan media report on Wednesday repeated long-standing Angolan government accusations that “a few influential” individuals in Zambia are providing UNITA with logistical support. It said the Angolan delegation would present the Zambian authorities with “indisputable proof” of those connections, and would request a guarantee that there would be no official support to UNITA.

However, a senior Zambian military officer participating in the meetings told IRIN that his Angolan counterparts had “not raised anything of that nature”.

According to a Zambian foreign ministry official, “the situation has eased. There are still some pockets of suspicion but it’s not as tense as it was a few weeks ago.” He said the border insecurity was related to the Angolan government’s military offensive, and added that Zambia had managed to allay Luanda’s concerns over Lusaka’s alleged links to UNITA.

Meanwhile, local humanitarian sources said that Angolan refugees arriving in northwestern Zambia from the rebel-held town of Cazombo have claimed that civilians are being used as human shields by UNITA, as government forces bomb the strategic centre.

Aid workers who spoke to the refugees arriving in the Maheba refugee camp last week said they were told that fighting was “very close” to the town, but UNITA are forcing the local population to remain, and have “hacked and killed” to prevent people from leaving.

“They (the refugees) are all talking of a lot of people remaining behind and being prevented from crossing,” one humanitarian source told IRIN. “The latest group (to cross the border) said that Cazombo has not fallen but there is a lot of heavy fighting.”

UNHCR reported that at the beginning of June some 100 refugees were arriving a week from the Cazombo area, but the rate has since slowed to an average of about 20 people, mostly women and children. Over the past six months the agency has registered some 5,000 new arrivals to Maheba from around Cazombo, bringing the total of Angolan refugees in Zambia to 39,000, a UNHCR official said.