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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

ANGOLA: Govt says talks on Cabinda close

JOHANNESBURG, 6 August 2003 (IRIN) - The Angolan government is "near the start of dialogue" on the status of the oil-rich Cabinda enclave, provincial governor Aníbal Rocha said this week.

Speaking to the state news agency Angop, he noted that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was "very interested" in finding a peaceful solution to the long-running separatist dispute. With the success of a military offensive in undermining the rebel Cabinda Enclave Liberation Front (FLEC), Rocha said "I think we are near the start of the dialogue that will be important and serious."

However, director of the NGO Open Society-Angola, Rafael Marques, told IRIN that any meaningful talks on the future of the enclave would need to include internal civil society groups, rather than just the divided and discredited FLEC leaders in exile.

"The internal opposition in Cabinda is extremely articulate and far more educated than the political leaders living abroad. The [overseas] political leaders fear losing total control of the situation by being militarily defeated [by the government] and losing their moral grip on Cabinda, so they are rushing to negotiate," Marques said.

Rank Franque, one of the co-founders of FLEC, arrived from Canada for talks in the Angolan capital, Luanda, over two weeks ago, but had not yet travelled to Cabinda. Marques suggested it was indicative of the government's priorities that Franque and his delegation were still waiting in their hotel for negotiations to begin.

"So what sort of dialogue are we talking about, or is [the talk about talks] to shake off the internal and external pressure on the issue? asked Marques.

The ruling MPLA secretary-general, João Lourenço, told state television this week the government was still waiting for valid partners before dialogue on Cabinda could proceed.

Both Lourenço and Rocha were reportedly critical of a two-day civil society conference on the future of Cabinda organised by the Open Society last month. The meeting, which attracted local leaders and included the influential churches, called for a ceasefire, the end of human rights abuses by the army, for the oil company ChevronTexaco to respect the rights of local workers, and for the beginning of substantive negotiations on Cabinda's status only after Angola's first post-war elections.

"The solution to the [Cabinda] problem will not be reached through conferences that various organisations promote," Lourenço was quoted by Angop as saying.

Marques said the clear consensus at the meeting was that Cabindans wanted independence - an idea the Angolan government has always rejected - but some would settle for autonomy, the extent of which Luanda has said it would be willing to negotiate.

Cabinda, divided from the rest of Angola by a sliver of the Democratic Republic of Congo, produces 60 percent of Angola's oil.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

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