The new UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Angola, Mr. Issa Diallo, has taken on an enormously complicated mediation effort. "This is the worst period for a mediator," Mr. Diallo told Africa Recovery. "The warring parties have adopted new strategies and do not want to listen to any mediator."
Arriving in Luanda towards the end of August, he found the UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accord stymied by lingering mistrust, with an all-out war looming due to the inability of the government and the rebel movement UNITA to reach agreement on many fundamental issues. Four years after the signing of the peace accord, UNITA still refuses to yield control of its key strongholds, accusing the government of human rights abuses in areas already handed over. The government, on the other hand, claims UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi still wants to take power by force of arms and has troops hidden in the bush.
As the two sides blame each other for the failure to implement fully the political and military clauses of the 1994 peace accord, fighting has intensified and both sides continue to prepare for a possible full-scale war.
Disarming the UNITA military machine is the underlying problem of the peace process. The rebel movement has been accused of providing insufficient information about its troop strength and demobilization. Mr. Diallo says there is speculation that UNITA has around 30,000-50,000 troops, although it had declared full demobilization on 6 March.
Compounding the problem, the MPLA government has broken off all contacts with Mr. Savimbi and has recognized the UNITA Renovation Committee -- a splinter group of the UNITA leadership -- as "the only legitimate interlocutor for the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol." UNITA's leadership in its central highlands headquarters in Bailundo, however, insists that it remains the legitimate partner in the peace process.
A UN career diplomat appointed to continue the work of Mr. Alioune Blondin Beye, who died in a plane crash on 27 June, Mr. Diallo describes the Angolan standoff as "the syndrome of the finish line" in which runners get nervous, excited and impatient. "I have hope they will come to the finish line because there is no other way. The Lusaka agreement is still the shortest way to peace, still the least expensive."
He says that the MPLA government has grown impatient and has made it clear that it will resort to force to implement the peace plan. "The government has said that Mr. Savimbi must abandon his ambition of taking power by force. That means that he must abandon his weapons, hand over territory, and come and join the club of the democratic institutions."
Mr. Diallo recently sought to see Mr. Savimbi in his central highlands headquarters and had an appointment for 21 September, but a government representative declined to provide any security guarantees to Mr. Diallo and even warned him that the government would cease all contacts with the Special Representative if he undertook the trip. Mr. Diallo, who stresses the importance of remaining in talks with the UNITA leader, then requested an audience with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos for further consultations.
"Even if there is a chance out of one million to bring peace by talking to Savimbi, I will do it," he said. "What we need now is to work on all ways and means to talk to Savimbi, in a very short period of time and to convince him that the best road to peace is toward the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol. Mr. Savimbi should understand that the solution to the Angolan problem is not a military solution, it is a political one."
Mr. Diallo also wants both the government and UNITA to understand that the UN "cannot advocate the use of force" and that "this is not a war to be won at any cost."
The peace process is facing "a very difficult period," says the UN envoy, but "something has to be done to bring Mr. Savimbi back on track, without conditions, without delay."
