PEACE IN ANGOLA WOULD BE HARBINGER OF PEACE ON AFRICAN CONTINENT, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN LUANDA

26 March 1997

Press Release
SG/SM/6191

PEACE IN ANGOLA WOULD BE HARBINGER OF PEACE ON AFRICAN CONTINENT, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS IN LUANDA

19970326 In Address to Extraordinary Session Of Joint Commission; Calls It 'Vital Part' of Angola's Peace Process

Following is the address by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Joint Commission, related to Angola's peace process, in Luanda, on 24 March:

It is an honour for me to chair this Extraordinary Session of the Joint Commission on my first visit to Angola as Secretary-General.

The main reason for my visit here, so early in my term as Secretary- General, is to give fresh impetus to the search for peace in this country. We are in the final lap of a long race. It is said that races are won in the final lap. The developments in Bailundo today confirm the validity of that old adage. I will elaborate on today's significant developments shortly.

In our endeavour to assist the Angolan people in their tireless search for peace, I seek your continued help, support and expertise. This Joint Commission has been a vital part of the peace process. All of you have worked long and hard to help bring peace to this country: many of you, indeed, have been members of this Commission since the days of the Lusaka talks.

I am grateful for all you have done.

I also thank the Observer States -- Portugal, Russian Federation and the United States -- for their valuable contribution to the work of this Joint Commission, and also for their support for the Angolan peace process in the United Nations Security Council.

No one expected the task of this Commission to be easy or straightforward. It faced a daunting agenda -- supervising the implementation of those aspects of the Bicesse Accords of a political, administrative or military nature which had not been implemented, and the carrying out of the Lusaka Protocol.

There have been achievements. There has been a cease-fire, and the country has not ben at war for a longer period than at any time since independence. Some combatants have been put in cantonments and arms have been handed in. There has been a reduction in the level of political propaganda. An amnesty law has been passed. Prisoners have been released.

I know how much this Joint Commission has accomplished. It provided a forum where the parties could meet, confer and work out their differences together. It provided a place where informal dialogue could take place. It also gave clear parameters to the parties, by establishing clear timescales, and by organizing follow-up meetings between the delegation chiefs.

The Joint Commission, in other words, has done what it can to implement the goals of the peace process. It held meetings not only in Luanda, but also in the provinces. It took the message of the peace process -- the message of peace and reconciliation -- to all parts of the country. And, by organizing transport convoys, it help to re-establish the principle of freedom of movement of people and goods throughout the country.

Yet, as we know, actual implementation of the accords has lagged lamentably behind. There have been many occasions on which you must have asked yourselves whether your efforts were worthwhile. Peace has been painfully slow in coming.

Your patience has been sorely tried. But you stayed the course. Your persistence in the face of so much discouragement is admirable.

However, we may all be nearing the end of the tunnel.

Following my meeting with Dr. Savimbi today in Bailundo, I am encouraged that the major impediment to the peace process in Angola has been removed. Dr. Savimbi informed me that all the deputies of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) will take their seats in the National Assembly tomorrow when I will deliver my address to the unified legislature which will serve the interest of all the people of Angola. Forty-nine UNITA deputies are already in Luanda and the rest will travel to Luanda early tomorrow morning by a special aircraft of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) and I will personally meet them at Luanda airport.

Dr. Savimbi also informed me that the UNITA members of the Government will all be in Luanda on 26 March and that, following consultations with President Eduardo dos Santos, UNITA is ready for the formal installation by the end of March of the Government of National Unity and Reconciliation. In his address to the people of Bailundo and to UNITA in general following our

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talks, Dr. Savimbi said the following: "We will consolidate peace so that this peace is secured".

These developments are significant and I have no doubt that they will be quite welcomed by the Angolan people and by the international community. The Government and UNITA must now proceed without delay to implement the rest of the Lusaka Protocol.

I hope that they will rise to this historic occasion, honour their commitments and show themselves worth of the support of the Angolan people and the international community. Nothing would give me more joy at this time; nothing would give me greater satisfaction, as an African, than to see an end to this last internal conflict in the southern African sub-region.

Peace in Angola would be the harbinger of peace throughout southern Africa, and, ultimately, on the African continent as a whole.

So, despite the delays, the difficulties and the frustration, I hope that with the positive development of today, we can still win the peace here. Again, I thank all members of the Joint Commission for all you have done. Your role is, and will remain, crucial.

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