UNITA questions legitimacy of Lusaka process

The Angolan government on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to the 1994 Lusaka peace accord concluded with UNITA rebels and declined any new mediation in the stalled peace process, AFP reported.

Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that the Lusaka power sharing agreement - negotiated at a time when government forces had the upper hand against UNITA - remained the basis for peace in Angola.

He reportedly said that his government continued to cooperate with the three countries designated to oversee the accord, the United States, Russia and Angola's former colonial power Portugal. But as domestic and international pressure mounts for a national dialogue to end the 26-year war, Miranda stressed that Luanda would not accept any other negotiating partner outside the framework of Lusaka and the three supervising powers.

UNITA's failure to comply with all the provisions of the peace agreement led to the country's return to war in late 1998. Now, with the movement recently scoring military successes in the long civil war, UNITA is calling for a revision of the agreement achieved after a torturous process of negotiations in the Zambian capital.

In the latest security setback for the government, the Catholic church-run station Radio Eclesia reported on Thursday that UNITA troops captured the municipality of Quela in the northern province of Malange. UNITA forces also reportedly attacked a fuel depot in the key central highland city of Huambo this week.

"The most important problem with the Lusaka Protocol is the fact that today, in military terms, we must restart everything," UNITA spokesman in Lisbon, Jofre Justino told IRIN. "The army forces of the government and UNITA are not the same as they were in 1994, and are not in the same positions."

He added: "In political terms we must remember that the political situation in Angola has also suffered a lot of changes with new political forces and a revitalised and stronger civil society that must be present in new peace talks." Justino also called for the lifting of UN sanctions against UNITA before peace talks can resume.

A security analyst in Johannesburg told IRIN that UNITA's new belligerency was an indication that veteran rebel leader Jonas Savimbi "has some confidence back". But, he said, "I don't see the government caving in. Yes, there'll be some renegotiation, but Lusaka will broadly form the basis of future negotiations