ANGOLA: Peace Negotiator Remains Optimistic Despite Fighting

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 08 (IPS) - The special U.N. peace negotiator to Angola Thursday voiced confidence that a lasting peace would take hold in the Southern African nation, even despite two weeks of fighting following a nation-wide ceasefire.

Alioune Blondin Beye, who supervised the nearly year-long peace talks in Lusaka, Zambia that concluded with a ceasefire Nov. 22, conceded that reports of fighting continue in Angola.

On Wednesday, the United Nations suspended aid flights to the central cities of Huambo and Malanje after a U.N. plane was shot at near the latter town.

Nevertheless, "there has been no breach of the ceasefire," Beye stressed. He called the attacks in recent days by soldiers of the Angolan government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) militarily insignificant, and described them as isolated skirmishes.

Despite his optimism, the U.N. Security Council and Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali have yet to agree that an 'effective' ceasefire -- the Council's condition for dispatching more U.N. peacekeepers -- has taken hold.

The Council, which Thursday unanimously extended the mandate of the U.N. Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) to the end of January, noted also that Boutros-Ghali has yet to say "that the conditions on the ground warrant...deployment" of an expanded U.N. force.

The continued fighting between the government and UNITA forces thus has blocked, even two weeks after the long-delayed ceasefire, the expansion of UNAVEM from 80 officers to 350 military observers and 126 police observers. That in turn delays the prospects of UNAVEM's ultimate expansion to a 7,000-soldier force.

But Beye has insisted that conditions are ripe for the new soldiers to arrive, and added, "If the decision is taken (to send them), it will strengthen the ceasefire."

Beye has said that planning for UNAVEM's new deployment, ongoing since February, are so advanced that troops can be deployed within three to four days of a Council decision. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard added that "we have had a pretty good response for troop contributors" for the 7,000-soldier force.

Beye insisted that the deployment process is ready to begin. He argued, "When the Council asked for an 'effective' ceasefire, they didn't mean 'no shooting.' (Now) the difference from the situation before the initialling (of the Lusaka pact) is like the difference between day and night."

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service