15 March 2000
U.N. Panel Reports on Angolan Sanctions Busters
(U.S. says panel has done pioneering work on sanctions) (1680) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Reporting on the efforts of UNITA rebels to buy weapons to wage war against the Angolan government, U.N. investigators told the Security Council March 15 of secret deals with weapons brokers, passport-sized packets of diamonds paying for children's schooling, diamond smuggling, and the work of UNITA operatives in some of the major capitals of the world. Most important, they named the former Zaire, Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, and Togo as sanctions busters. The 60-page report -- commissioned by the Security Council -- details the involvement of countries in the region, the source of UNITA's arms and training and fuel supplies, how UNITA exchanged diamonds for commodities or cash, and how UNITA holds its assets. It chronicles how inadequate arms export control regimes, largely in Eastern Europe, coupled with free-wheeling air services, provided UNITA with deliveries of weapons. The document, entitled "Report of the Panel of Experts on Violations of Security Council Sanctions Against UNITA," outlines how UNITA is represented abroad, who represents the rebel group, and how they travel. It also gives recommendations on how each of the sanctions violations can be stopped. The report also makes clear that violations did not occur along obvious geographical, ideological or linguistic lines. Sanctions busting, it says, was not limited to any particular region or subregion. At a council debate on the report March 15, Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler, chairman of the Angola Sanctions Committee, said that sanctions on their own cannot end the war in Angola, "but they can help significantly to create conditions conducive to stopping this war once and for all." Nevertheless, Fowler said, many of the people he encountered since becoming chairman regarded the imposition of sanctions "as a political gesture on which the council had little intention of following through." "The result has been not only a culture of impunity regarding the violation of Security Council sanctions, but also a massive failure even to communicate the activities covered by sanctions," he said. UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, however, "did understand both the scope and purpose of these sanctions, and he took methodical and far-sighted action to neutralize their impact by systematically setting up a variety of overlapping supply systems and by purchasing friends and facilitators in a number of countries and within the international arms bazaar, the diamond market, and among rogue air services," the ambassador said. "As the sanctions began to bite, Mr. Savimbi adopted his plans, constantly jinking and twisting to thwart -- until recently, very successfully -- the objective of the sanctions regime," Fowler said. U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said that "the report clearly demonstrates a need for continued strengthening of sanctions, particularly in the areas of diamond sales, arms purchases, and foreign travel." The report "highlighted in a stark and dramatic fashion a systematic pattern of violations by the UNITA leadership and with the collusion of foreign actors," said Cunningham, who is the U.S. deputy permanent representative to the U.N. "Whether foreign actors are motivated by greed or by political conviction, their support to UNITA's military machine has prolonged the suffering of the Angolan people." The U.S. ambassador said that "the revelations and recommendations of the experts' panel require careful consideration, and we look forward to a discussion in the council on next steps. For now, however, the report paints a picture, one which is largely corroborated by our own information, of continued international support for UNITA's military leadership. "At this point, we strongly urge the leaderships of those parties cited in the report to re-examine their policies vis-a-vis UNITA and commit to comply fully with all council measures in effect," Cunningham said. Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda said that his government fully supported the recommendations in the report, and taking into account the evidence in the report, the council "must consider the implementation of sanctions against the culprits." The international community should increase the pressure to ensure greater isolation of Savimbi, the minister said. The panel of experts recommended that the council apply sanctions against the leaders and governments who have been deliberately breaking the arms embargo. That could include an embargo on arms sales to the named countries for three years. Governments should also agree to register, license and monitor the activities of arms brokers and provide the information to a central database, the panel said. The panel also suggested a ban on holding U.N. or other international governmental conferences in countries deemed to be in breach of the sanctions and recommended that such countries not be elected to senior positions within the U.N. or chair any international or regional organization. Panel members visited nearly 30 countries, meeting with government officials, members of the diplomatic community, non-governmental organizations, police and intelligence sources, industry associations, commercial companies, and journalists. A significant portion of the information came from interviewing a number of key UNITA defectors, including General Jacinto Bandua, a senior arms procurer; Colonel Alcides Lucas Kangunga, UNITA representative in Togo from 1993 to 1995; Lieutenant Colonel Jose Antonia Gil, chief of UNITA control tower at Andulo; Colonel Aristide Kagunga, head of telecommunications for Savimbi; and Araujo Sakaita, a son of Savimbi, who broke with UNITA in October 1999. The report also noted that the stepped-up efforts of the Sanctions Committee -- especially the visits of the panel of experts who prepared the report and Fowler, who has been making an effort to curb UNITA's ability to export or use diamonds to finance its war effort -- along with more cooperation from governments and non-governmental organizations, "have made it harder for UNITA to sell its diamonds, and more expensive for UNITA to acquire arms and military equipment." "It is also clear, however, that unless the Security Council and the international community remain engaged in this effort, there is a very real risk that when the focus has been turned off, UNITA and its partners will go back to doing business as usual," the report said. "The fear that UNITA will then be able to rearm and equip itself, as in the past, is a very often expressed fear and concern" of those who talked to the experts, the report said. The panel urged council members to "seize this opportunity to demonstrate that international sanctions can be made to work effectively, that member states and others will be held accountable to the international community for their actions, and that the council means what it says when it passes resolutions and takes action in support of peace." Such a message would be heard not only in Angola, the panel pointed out, but in many other current and potential areas of conflict as well. The sanctions prohibit providing UNITA with oil products or weapons and ban the purchase of diamonds mined in UNITA-controlled areas. They require the seizing of UNITA's bank accounts and other financial assets, the closing of UNITA offices abroad, and the imposition of travel restrictions on senior UNITA officials and members of their immediate families. In 1993 and 1994 UNITA got much of its military equipment from a South African arms dealer named Ronnie DeDecker and his brother, Joe, a diamond dealer. They procured the equipment mainly in Eastern Europe and were paid in diamonds, which they sold in Antwerp, the panel reported. In addition, between 1994 and 1997 Savimbi was helped by then Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko, who allowed military equipment to be stored in the country and provided UNITA with Zairian end-user certificates to purchase weapons. In exchange Savimbi gave Mobutu diamonds and cash, the report said. Following the overthrow of Mobutu, Togo's President Eyadema replaced Mobutu as the primary supplier of end-user certificates for arms and military equipment, the report said. The panel also said that it is "highly likely that arms legally sold and transported to Burkina Faso have been diverted by Burkinabe authorities to UNITA in breach of Security Council sanctions." It also called "credible" reports that significant amounts of military equipment was shipped to Congo-Brazzaville in order for UNITA to avoid turning the arms over to the U.N. peacekeepers monitoring the disarmament under the Lusaka protocol. The weapons were then progressively fed back into UNITA territory, it said. Despite previous animosities, Rwanda began cooperating with UNITA after Savimbi helped two Rwandan battalions who became trapped in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escape, the report said. Savimbi then sent a battery of UNITA anti-aircraft crews to aid Rwandan-backed rebels in the DRC, and, for its part, Rwanda is reported to have allowed UNITA to use Kigali to arrange diamond sales and meetings with weapons brokers. The panel also said that Lanseria airport near Johannesburg is being used to smuggle medicines, clothing, and other commercial commodities, and diamonds. Planes leave Lanseria declaring Zambia or the DRC as their destination, but once in Zambian airspace divert to locations in UNITA territory. The panel found that between 1996 and the end of 1998, UNITA got its principal fuel supplies from purchases within Angola, from Zaire until the overthrow of Mobutu in May 1997, and from Congo-Brazzaville until the overthrow of Lissouba in October 1997. When fighting resumed in November 1998, Savimbi personally took charge of fuel operations, approaching Burkina Faso, Zambia, and Togo, and Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. In February 1999 President Compaore of Burkina Faso agreed to the dispatch of 60,000 liters of diesel fuel, informants told the panel. The panel also received "credible and reliable" reports of significant commercial smuggling of fuel into UNITA areas, the report said. Members of the panel of experts are Ambassador Anders Mollander of Sweden, chairman; Col. Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo of Botswana; Stanlake Samkange of Zimbabwe; Gilbert Barthe of Switzerland; Jinping Cheng of China; Melvin Holt of the United States, Oleg Ivanov of Russia; Bennie Lombard of South Africa; Hannes George McKay of Namibia; and Olivier Vallee of France. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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