DATE=7/29/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N - ANGOLA SANCTIONS (L - ONLY)
NUMBER=2-252301
BYLINE=MAX RUSTON
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Members of the United Nations Security Council
today (Thursday) called for a strengthening of
sanctions against Angola's UNITA rebel group. Council
members say sanctions already in place have proven
ineffective and need to be better enforced. More from
Correspondent Max Ruston at U-N headquarters in New
York.
TEXT: The Council met to hear a briefing from
Canada's U-N Ambassador Robert Fowler, who heads the
Council's committee for sanctions on Angola. Mr.
Fowler outlined several proposals that would - in his
words - add teeth to sanctions already in place. They
include closer cooperation with Interpol, the World
Customs Organization, the European Union and NATO to
detect violations of existing sanctions - particularly
the sale of diamonds and the purchase of weapons by
Angola's UNITA opposition group.
Ambassador Fowler:
/// FOWLER ACT ///
Our intention in the sanctions committee is to
do everything we can to ensure UNITA gets as
little return as possible for the diamonds they
sell. They will sell the diamonds. But lets
force them into gray markets and black markets,
lets force them to use the back door rather than
the front door, let force them to use more
middle-men, or more unscrupulous middle-men so
that the amount of money they get to buy tanks
is less.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Fowler says the recommendations are also designed
to make it more difficult and expensive for sanctions
violators to deliver weapons to Angola, thereby
further reducing UNITA's war capacity.
Members of the Security Council expressed support for
most of Mr. Fowler's proposals but did not take any
direct action to implement them. The Council
committee for sanctions on Angola is expected to set
up a series of panels to study the proposals before
formally submitting them for Council approval.
U-S representative to the United Nations, Peter
Burleigh, was among the strongest supporters of the
proposals.
/// BURLEIGH ACT ///
While Angola's neighbors are not the sole actors
in making sanctions against UNITA more
effective, their role cannot be overemphasized.
As the porous borders that are used to supply
UNITA are made ever more solid, the peace and
security of the whole region are improved. The
profiteers who help supply UNITA, if allowed to
continue their malevolent mischief today, will
create death and suffering elsewhere tomorrow.
We must work together to put an end to these
destructive activities.
/// END ACT ///
Diplomats say UNITA has earned between three billion
and four billion dollars from diamond sales over the
past eight years and possibly made even more money
through shrewd investments.
In past statements and resolutions, the U-N Security
Council has placed most of the blame for continued
fighting in Angola on UNITA and its leader, Jonas
Savimbi. Diplomats say Mr. Savimbi has not abided by
pledges made in the 1994 Lusaka peace accord, which
was to have ended two decades of civil war in Angola.
Most important, they say, he has failed to disarm his
fighters and hand over territory under his control to
the government.
An estimated one million people have died in Angola's
civil war. There are currently nearly two-million
displaced people in the country - about 18 percent of
its total population. (signed)
NEB/NYC/MPR/LSF/gm
29-Jul-1999 14:44 PM LOC (29-Jul-1999 1844 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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