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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Angola's UNITA rebels lay down arms |
| 2002-08-03 |
| Angola's UNITA rebels formally disbanded their military wing and laid down their arms, ending the 27-year civil war that has torn the country since independence from Portugal. At a ceremony bringing to an end one of the longest conflicts on the African continent, government and rebel officials announced the formal end of the rebellion which had been in the works since a peace deal signed in April. "We have entered a new era," Angolan Defence Minister General Kundi Pahyama said. "From now on the conditions have come together for stability in Angola." All it took was 27 years of bloody civil war, who knows how many dead and maimed, and the death of Jonas Savimbi... Former rebel commander General Abreu Kamorteiro said, "Under our peace accord, we will never again take up arms against the republic of Angola." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 fred: And the most tragic and exasperating cat is that if the FPLA had accepted its electoral loss back then, not called for Soviet help which resulted in the massive airlift of Cuban and East German soldiers, this ugly civil war would've never happened. Angloa could've been one of the wealthiest and more stable African countries a useful counterweight to what's happening in Zimbabwe. Together with South Africa, anglo would've been an influential country within the continent. Frankly, nobody really won this war; let's hope that this experience moderates all the parties and leads them on the road to reconciliation and reconstruction. I don't want another Zimbabwe in waiting xavier |
| Posted by: xavier 2002-08-03 14:40:01 |