DATE=10/10/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ANGOLA - UNITA - DIAMONDS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254853
BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA
DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A senior official of Angola's UNITA movement
says the decision this past week by South Africa's De
Beers firm to stop buying Angolan diamonds will not
harm the rebels. More from V-O-A Southern Africa
Correspondent Alex Belida.
TEXT: UNITA's sales of diamonds mined from territory
under its control have brought the rebel group
millions of dollars in income and financed its
purchases of arms, ammunition and other military
supplies.
But UNITA Foreign Secretary Alcides Sakala rejects
suggestions that the Angolan diamond embargo announced
by the influential De Beers firm, which controls most
of the world's diamond sales will have a serious
impact on the rebels' ability to fight on.
/// SAKALA ACT ///
We have never sold diamonds to De Beers, in the
past, recently and now. So I believe that's more
symbolic. The point I'd like to stress is the
following: whoever wants to buy diamonds is
welcome to our free land, so I don't see how De
Beers can really solve this problem.
/// END SAKALA ACT ///
Speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed
location inside Angola, Mr. Sakala also tells V-O-A
UNITA is not suffering any supply problems as a result
of international sanctions against the rebels or the
latest fighting in the country - fighting which he
blames on Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.
/// SAKALA 2nd ACT ///
I think that's not really a problem right now.
We have enough ammunition to defend ourselves
from the aggression of Eduardo Dos Santos.
/// END SAKALA 2ND ACT ///
Mr. Sakala claims government ground troops involved in
the latest offensive against rebel positions are
abandoning large quantities of arms, which UNITA is in
turn using against them.
/// OPT /// Still, Mr. Sakala concedes that attacks
by government aircraft are taking a heavy toll.
/// OPT SAKALA ACT ///
When they attack with their jet fighters, they
are using napalm, cluster bombs, fuel-air
explosives and phosphorous. They are hitting
entire villages.So people are dying today.
/// END OPT ACT /// END OPT ///
But the senior UNITA official says rebel forces have
no plans to go on the offensive in response.
/// OPT /// He says the rebels' current strategy is
one of what he calls active defense - a strategy he
says is aimed at destroying the capacity of government
armed forces to launch further attacks. /// END OPT
///
Mr. Sakala also says the rebels remained interested in
national reconciliation and dialogue.
/// OPT /// But he says peace depends on the
willingness of President Dos Santos to reject what Mr.
Sakala contends is the government's present policy of
"exclusion, intolerance, intransigence and war." ///
END OPT ///
Fighting resumed in Angola late last year after the
government and the United Nations accused UNITA of
failing to live up to its commitments under the
country's 1994 peace agreement to demilitarize and
hand over territory under rebel control.
However, government military offensives aimed at
wiping out the rebel leadership and seizing UNITA
strongholds appear so far to have been unsuccessful.
(Signed)
NEB/BE/ALW
10-Oct-1999 07:24 AM EDT (10-Oct-1999 1124 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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