Unita denies Angola diamonds claim

Diamond diggers still dream of striking it rich

By Justin Pearce BBC correspondent in Luanda

In Angola, the former rebel movement Unita has reacted angrily to a United Nations report accusing it of retaining unknown quantities of weapons and illicit diamonds.

During the final years of the civil war in Angola, Unita relied on diamond sales to fund its military activities.

The UN imposed sanctions against this trade, but the report admits that the illegal trade nevertheless continued right up until the end of the war.

Unita is believed to be still in possession of stashes of illicit diamonds that have been neither located nor accounted for

UN sanctions monitoring committee

Certain sanctions remain in place against Unita's leaders, who are now hinting that they want to delay the finalisation of the peace accord, which is scheduled for later this week.

Ever since the Angolan Government and the Unita rebels signed a peace accord in April this year, both sides have sounded up-beat about the progress in implementing that agreement.

Accusations

A report by the sanctions monitoring committee of the United Nations Security Council paints a less cheerful picture.

The document was released last month, but only recently made public in Angola.

UN says illicit diamond trade went through Congo-Brazzaville and DR Congo

The UN sanctions monitoring mechanism was set up to try and halt the flow of cash and arms to Unita during the last years of the war, when the rebels' military campaign was funded largely by diamond sales.

Now, more than six months after the cease-fire, the committee reports that Unita is still in possession of what it calls stashes of illicit diamonds.

It says that some key Unita figures who were involved in the diamond trade have not yet committed themselves to the peace process in Angola.

The UN document argues that sanctions against Unita were generally successful, but it says that the criminal networks which played an essential role in sustaining the war still exist.

It points to Congo-Brazzaville and to rebel-held areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo as being the main conduits for diamonds leaving Angola illegally in recent years.

The report also notes that considerable quantities of arms held by Unita remain unaccounted for - even though Angolan Government officials had earlier expressed satisfaction that Unita had been disarmed.

'Counterproductive'

A statement from Unita's political committee has condemned the report as false, and challenged the UN to present the data on which it is based.

This report is... counterproductive to the efforts which the Angolan Government and Unita have been making towards creating a climate of trust and co-operation

Unita's political commission

The report came to light not long after Unita nominees had been appointed to certain government positions, in fulfilment of the peace accord.

The Joint Commission - the body chaired by the UN which is overseeing that peace accord - was preparing to disband on Thursday.

Yet sanctions remain in force against Unita's leaders, who now appear worried that the UN report will further delay the lifting of those sanctions.

Unita now says that the Joint Commission cannot disband until all sanctions are lifted.

But one UN source in Luanda said that since Unita had previously agreed to the Thursday deadline, it was unlikely that this would be reversed.