British and US envoys discuss Iraq

Baroness Valerie Amos, British Secretary of State responsible for African affairs and special envoy of Prime Minister Tony Blair, arrived in Luanda on 25 February seeking Angola’s support for Britain’s position on Iraq.

Following a meeting with President José Eduardo dos Santos, she said diplomatic contacts with other members of the Security Council were taking place, since there would soon be a new resolution on Iraq.

Other issues discussed during the meeting were SADC, which is currently chaired by Angola, and Zimbabwe.

A week earlier, President dos Santos received Walter Kansteiner, the US Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, also to discuss Angola’s position on Iraq. The US official subsequently visited Cameroon and Guinea Conakry, both of which are also non-permanent members of the Security Council.

Angola has endorsed the position taken by the African Union that there should be no military action against Iraq unless all possibilities of peaceful disarmament have been exhausted.

Diplomatic corps asked to continue support

Members of the diplomatic corps have expressed the willingness of their countries to continue to support the Angolan government’s efforts on behalf of the neediest people in Angola and urged the international community to do the same.

During a meeting called by the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration on 20 February, the diplomats were briefed on programmes underway to help demobilised soldiers, the physically handicapped and other needy sectors of the population.

The programmes were costing more than US$125 million, US$55 million of which was being spent on projects for the reintegration of demobilised soldiers and support for displaced persons and other needy people, while the remaining US$65 million was for logistics.

A vocational training project for 75,000 former Unita soldiers, they were told, would benefit 150,000 people. Courses included agriculture, fisheries, carpentry, electricity and nursing, among other things. The government was also providing assistance for disabled people.

Francisco Xavier Esteves, Portugal’s Ambassador, praised the government’s efforts to reintegrate demobilised soldiers, which he described as a ‘gigantic task that deserves the full support of the international community’.

Jorge Taunay, the Brazilian Ambassador, also congratulated the government.

He called on the international community to respond to the appeals of the United Nations and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to help the government to solve the humanitarian crisis, ‘which is distressing not only Angola, but the whole world’.

Government preparing peace plan for Cabinda

Aníbal Lopes Rocha, governor of Cabinda Province, announced in Luanda on 17 February that the government was preparing a plan to resolve the conflict situation in the Angolan enclave by peaceful means.

Speaking on a Luanda commercial radio station, he said the project would be discussed by the government and the various factions of Flec, the separatist movement.

The programme, he said, was being drawn up by a commission that included experts from the offices of the President and the Prime Minister, the secretariat of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Territorial Administration. It gave priority to dialogue and ways of achieving peace in Cabinda, he said, and would soon be submitted for approval by the appropriate bodies, with a view to implementation.

Stressing that it had always been the intention of the MPLA and government to find a peaceful solution for that part of the country, he recalled that President José Eduardo dos Santos had already indicated that the road to peace would also reach Cabinda, like the rest of the country.

Aníbal Rocha, who is also first secretary of the MPLA in Cabinda, said that a precondition for dialogue was the cessation of hostilities, and he asked for the help of traditional authorities in persuading the Flec separatists to lay down their arms, so that there could be frank and open dialogue.

UNMA mission ends on 15 February

The UN Security Council decided to end the United Nations Mission in Angola, UNMA, and its mandate ended on 15 February. The proposal to do so was made by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a report on the mission, who recommended that the resident UN coordinator in Angola should resume responsibility for activities related to the outstanding tasks set out in Resolution 1433, 2002.

These include demining, the occupational and social reintegration of demobilised soldiers, the resettlement of displaced persons or their return to the home areas, and the rehabilitation of economic and social facilities indispensable to normal life. Other aspects are the protection and promotion of human rights, mobilising resources from the international community through a conference of international donors and providing technical assistance to the Angolan government in preparing for elections.

Angola’s Ambassador to the UN, Ismael Gaspar Martins, said the Secretary-General’s recommendations showed that the country was on the road to a normal political life. He stressed that the considerable improvement in the political situation in the country since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on 4 April 2002 had made it possible, for the first time since independence, for Angolans to live together without fear of recourse to war.

‘Now is the time to start the process of economic reconstruction,’ he said, adding that the government was confident that it could count on the help of the international community to develop the country.

Meanwhile, Ismael Gaspar Martins was besieged by journalists wanting to know not about the situation in the country but about the position of Angola on the crisis over Iraq.

Angola, like other Security Council members, has been the target of intensive campaigning. President José Eduardo dos Santos had received telephone calls from President George W Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, as well as from French President Jacques Chirac.

Dos Santos says Angola has entered upon a new era

Addressing a press conference in Addis Ababa, on 4 February, after attending a summit meeting of the African Union, President dos Santos said that since the start of the peace process Angola had entered upon a new era, this time definitively.

‘This was due to the political will expressed by all political organisations and by Angolan society as a whole,’ he said. ‘There is political stability, peace is being consolidated, and the attention of the authorities and the people is now centred on solving the consequences of war, the most visible ones at this stage.’

Among the consequences of war demanding urgent solution, he said, were the re-housing of around three million war-displaced people, the social reintegration of approximately 90,000 demobilised troops living in reception camps, together with around 300,000 of their family members, in addition to the problems of the very poor.

Roads, bridges and water harnessing stations destroyed during the war required a large-scale rehabilitation programme, and these too were gigantic tasks requiring ‘enormous financial resources’. Though Angola had received some humanitarian aid from the international community, it was not enough to meet the needs.

‘We have made appeals for increased aid,’ the President continued. ‘The government is making a great effort, not only in respect of humanitarian aid, but also to solve the problems I mentioned and to start a programme of rehabilitation and national reconstruction.’

Dos Santos described the AU meeting as a success. Referring to the challenges the new body faced, he stressed that it was the heir to the historical past of the OAU, which was an essential instrument in the struggle for the national liberation of African countries.

The new challenges included combating poverty and disease, ending the armed conflicts still taking place, and also combating the marginalisation of African countries in the globalisation process.

US$14 million allocated for reconstruction work in Kuito

Afonso Georje Assafe, head of the local government planning and statistics office in Kuito, capital of Bié Province, has said that central government has already allocated US$14 million for a special minimal project to rebuild Kuito, which was destroyed in the war. The standing commission of the Council of Ministers has estimated that US41.3 million would be needed for reconstruction work.

The money is to be spent, in the first phase, on rehabilitating health, education, electric power and water facilities, as well as local government premises.

Assafe said that 20 companies, both local and from other parts of the country, had already put their names down for the work and that public tender bids were scheduled for March.

The total programme will involve the rehabilitation of all facilities destroyed in the war.

The government also proposes to distribute building materials for the building and repair of private homes, and to build a new residential complex, among other projects.

Kuito was the city that suffered the greatest destruction in the war that broke out in the country after the 1992 elections, so that it will require very substantial investment.

Sonangol and Esso announce new project

Sonangol, the national oil company, and Esso Exploration Angola announced a new US$3 billion offshore deepwater development project on 19 February, which will produce an estimated 250,000 barrels a day.

The project, the third in block 15, was called Kizomba-B and is expected to produce one billion barrels, according to a Sonangol press release.

In 2001, Esso started to build Kizomba A in the same block, which is expected to produce one billion barrels from the Hungo and Chocalho fields, starting in late 2004.

In July 2002, Esso announced the start of work on the Xicomba deepwater project, also in block 15, with a forecast output of around 100 million barrels and planned production of 80,000 b/d. It is expected to start producing at the end of this year.

The operating group consists of Esso Exploration Angola, BP Exploration, Agip Angola, Exploration BV and Estatoil Angola.

Water supply systems repaired

The Jornal de Angola reported on 14 February that a number of regional water supply systems have recently been rehabilitated through government programmes in partnership with Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

They include the fresh water supply system to the city of Negage, Uíge Province, started in 2000, and the supply systems to Malanje and Luena, capital of Moxico Province, both of which are nearly completed.

A programme is also underway to tap subterranean water to supply people in rural areas. The project is being carried out in the provinces of Bengo, Malanje, Huíla, Namibe and Cunene. Twelve new bore holes have been made in the past two months and another four have been repaired.

Small-scale water supply systems in the Barra do Kwanza (Luanda), Camanongue (Moxico), the villages of Cari Tomessa and Tangi Kôngua (Uíge) and the commune of Calima (Huambo), were also repaired in joint projects with Unicef.

Government to build 2,400 homes

Higino Carneiro, Minister of Public Works, said in Luanda on 11 February that 2,400 homes would be built by the end of the year, as part of the government’s New Life Project. He said the first phase of building the university campus would be completed by June next year and that the two projects would cost US$350 million. This meant a great government effort, he said, aimed at meeting both social and educational needs.

The government would complete the repair of the Lubango-Namibe road by the end of the year, there now being 78 km left to do. Meanwhile, the repair of the Ndalatando-Lucala road, started in January, and the Sumbe-Gabela road, which was being extended to Kibala, was going well, he said.

The government, he continued, was also dealing with the definitive construction of the bridge over the Cavaco River and working to combat ravines in Saurimo and Dundo.

Work on basic sanitation in Luanda was continuing and US$6 million had already been spent on this, the Minister said.

Soil analysis laboratory re-opened in Huambo

Gilberto Buta Lutucuta, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, re-opened the soil analysis laboratory at the Chianga Agricultural Research Institute in Huambo on 8 February. Owing to the destruction caused during the occupation of Huambo in 1992, all soil analysis work had ceased since then.

The repair of the laboratory was financed by the European Union at a cost of 500,000, and it was refurbished with the help of the Huambo provincial government.

In addition to soil analysis, the laboratory has areas for cartography, analysis of vegetable tissue and meteorology.

The Minister said that as well as analysing soil quality in the country and elsewhere, the laboratory was intended to support the Faculty of Agricultural Science at Agostinho Neto University.

India to invest in fisheries and railways

Sharman Nand Sharman, head of a delegation of Indian bankers who visited Angola in early February, said that India would in investing in Angolan fisheries and railways.

Speaking to the press after a meeting with Arlindo Sicato, Deputy Minister of Finance, he said Angola had great banking and financial potential and required only a greater opening to foreign investors to help develop the country.

The delegation also had meetings with Amadeu Maurício, governor of the National Bank of Angola, with whom they discussed procedures for future transactions, and with other banking institutions.

Action in first sixty days of new government

During the first two months of the new government, which ended on 10 February, practical action was taken to solve a number of short-term problems, mainly in the areas of social reintegration and public works.

Summing up the achievements, Minister of Information Hendrick Vaal Neto said the key features had been ‘pragmatism, efficiency and absolute rigour and transparency in the management of public property’.

During the period, 422 km of highway had been completed, and other public works included the rehabilitation of economic housing in Panguila, the repair of bridges over the Kwanza and Lui rivers, and work on the drainage channels in Samba, Luanda.

In terms of humanitarian assistance, the government had assisted 1.8 million people from the most vulnerable groups all over the country since last year. Emergency aid had been provided for displaced persons, supplemented by aid from humanitarian agencies.

Also during the period, 12,100 tonnes of food and 2,100 tonnes of non-food aid had been distributed through the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration. In addition, the government had allocated US$120 million to the Special Social Reintegration Commission to assist former Unita soldiers and their families. Assistance programmes had also been provided for 70,000 physically handicapped people among them.

Economically, the government had adopted a package of fiscal and monetary measures aimed at reversing the process of ‘dollarisation’ of the Angolan economy and improving the financial system.

The Minister said this had decreased the risk of the flight of capital by strengthening the national currency, and efforts were being made to ensure that the economy was less vulnerable.

Disarming of civilians

The Consultative Council of the Ministry of the Interior, meeting in Luanda on 24 February, stated that the civilian population everywhere in the country should be disarmed, and called for the involvement of defence and security bodies, NGOs and civil society in achieving this.

Other issues discussed at the meeting were illegal immigration, the Ministry’s programme and major concerns, and the problems facing the Ministry’s provincial offices.

Special education school re-opened in Benguela

A special education school in Benguela was re-inaugurated on 21 February by first lady Ana Paula dos Santos, accompanied by Minister of Education António Burity da Silva.

The school for 270 pupils, the only one of its kind in the province, was repaired and refurbished at a cost of 338,519 provided by the European Union.

The school, which has 13 classrooms and will cater for children with visual, hearing and speaking deficiencies, has a staff of 50 teachers from Benguela and Lobito.

More than 90,000 people have already returned to their home areas

More than 90,000 people, including 22,000 demobilised soldiers and over 70,000 civilians, have returned to their home areas since November last year, within the framework of integrating demobilised soldiers into society and closing the reception centres.

This was revealed on 19 February at a meeting of the standing commission of the Council of Ministers. A press statement issued after the meeting said that at least five reception centres had been closed in the provinces of Bengo, Benguela, Kwanza Sul and Cunene.

It said that training was being given under the Citizenship and Employment Programme, aimed at providing basic vocational training for demobilised soldiers, in order to make it easier for them to settle in the areas they went to and enter the labour market, either in National Reconstruction Programme projects or as self-employed people.

The government was also planning to carry out a general demobilisation and reintegration programme, in partnership with the World Bank, to further the training of demobilised soldiers.

With regard to the return of Angolan refugees abroad, there were an estimated 450,000 of them in Zambia, Namibia, Congo and DR Congo.

About 120,000 had returned to Angola of their own accord since April 2002, it said, adding that it was planned to sign repatriation agreements with South Africa and Botswana, in addition to existing agreements between Angola and neighbouring countries and with the UNHCR.

After examining the programme for the return and resettlement of internally displaced people, the standing commission noted that more than one million people in 17 of the country’s provinces had already returned to their home areas. The government had acquired kits including domestic utensils, working tools, cleaning products and blankets, and had distributed food.

UN sends commission of inquiry to Angola

The Jornal de Angola reported on 19 February that a UN commission headed by an ombudsman had visited Angola to look into purported discriminatory and irregular acts by the United Nations Development Programme against local workers and expatriates from third world countries.

The commission, headed by James Lee, visited a number of provinces where there had been the most complaints, especially in the UNDP’s defence department.

The newspaper’s source said that those who had made the complaints were not Angolans. Although they were the ‘most discriminated against’, they preferred to say nothing for fear of losing their jobs.

By paying different salaries to Angolan workers, the source said, the UN was violating the international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination.

While the monthly pay of an Angolan official was US$1,500, his or her expatriate equivalent earned US$9,000, apart from being entitled to numerous allowances. Angolans were discriminated against even in respect of African colleagues from other Portuguese-speaking countries, the source said.

Attempts to contact the UN office proved fruitless.

Training for former Unita soldiers in Huambo

José Luís Tchuvila, director of the National Institute of Vocational Training in Huambo, said that this month the institute would start giving vocational training courses to former Unita soldiers, with a view to their reintegration in society.

This would start in Caála, he said, where the first 200 people would receive training in agriculture, livestock production, building, health and handicrafts for about two months. This was part of a programme in Huambo aimed at training 25,000 former Unita soldiers in the next 18 months.

Thirty-seven instructors were awaiting equipment and transport facilities to take them to different municipalities in the province.

Locating families in Huíla

Lázaro Yntya Cambinda, Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration director in Huíla Province, announced that a programme was being launched to find the families of 600 children it was caring for, most of them from the north and east of the province, where they had become separated from their families. Now that peace had come, he said, this was an urgent need.

Other action by his office, he continued, included a micro-credit scheme to enable young people living in extreme poverty to be reintegrated in society, while 148,283 displaced persons were to be resettled in their home areas.

Ministry priorities, he said, also included centres for the rehabilitation of physically handicapped people and vocational training programmes for ex-servicemen.

New schools for Bengo Province

The Bengo local government programme of action includes the building of 53 primary schools in the next two years and the repair and equipment of 109 other schools. During the same period, the building of three hospitals is planned and the rehabilitation of health posts in the municipalities of Dembos, Ambriz and Bula Atumba.

The programme, presented at a local government meeting on 17 February, also provided for generators to improve the supply of electricity to the Mabubas and Cassango areas, as well as the rehabilitation of water supply systems and the building of a water treatment station at Cabo Ledo.

Work is also to be done to improve roads in the province.

Social projects planned in Zaire Province

The Zaire provincial government plans to build 25 schools and 17 homes in the next two years, as part of its programme of improving living conditions.

The homes are for teaching staff in the city of Mbanza Congo and the schools are intended to take in as many as possible of the children currently outside the normal education system.

In the area of health, 18 medical posts and housing for nurses are to be built within the framework of the Public Investment Programme. Fresh water supply systems are to be built for the municipality of Kuimba, 80 km from Mbanza Congo, and Noki and Tomboco.

Other plans include the mounting of generators to supply electric power to different localities.

Measles immunisation in Huambo

Part of the first national campaign against measles, 443,800 children aged from nine months to 15 years are to be vaccinated against measles in Huambo Province between April and May this year.

The campaign is to be carried out by the Public Health Services with logistical support from Unicef, the World Health Organisation and NGOs based in the province.

One hundred and eighty-eight vaccination posts are to be set up in various parts of the province, involving more than 1,260 officials and four health workers, as well as mobilisers and team supervisors.

Teaching institute in Lunda Sul re-opens

The Higher Institute of Pedagogy in Saurimo, Lunda Sul Province, is to open in April, initially with 300 students.

Rehabilitated over a six-month period at a cost of more than US$600,00, it has eight classrooms, as well as computer and photography rooms, a canteen, a medical post, a library and a staff room.

During the presentation to the Institute management, provincial governor Miji Satamba Itengo stressed the need to look after the building well.

Abreu Manaças, director of the Institute, said teaching staff were being recruited in Luanda and locally.

Huambo has 400 new classrooms

Damião Salvador, provincial director of education, said that the Huambo government has 400 more classrooms for the current academic year, and could take in around 300,000 more students than last year.

He said community schools were being built, seminars were being held for teachers at various levels, and more teachers were being recruited from areas previously occupied by Unita.

Referring to the 25,000 children still in reception areas, he said a programme was being started under which they would receive schooling until the areas were closed. There was, he said, a shortage of teaching materials for 8th year students in different parts of the province, but efforts were being made to make sure materials were sent to those places.

Resettlement well underway

João Baptista Kussumua, Minister of Assistance and Social Reintegration, said on 6 February that 84,500 people in Benguela Province had been evacuated to their home areas. He said that 20,500 of them were demobilised Unita soldiers, and that 64,000 families had been resettled.

The process of transporting demobilised soldiers, displaced people and their families had gone well, he said, and further action was being taken to integrate them in agricultural work.

The Minister, who was on a working visit to Benguela, accompanied by Minister of Agriculture Gilberto Lutucuta and members of the social and productive reintegration commission, announced other programmes to promote income-generating activities and to give further training to workers in health and education.

Three of the five reception areas in the province had been closed and central government had allocated funds for the nationwide process of transporting people to the areas of their choice.

Demobilised troops leaving reception areas

It was reported on 3 February that growing numbers of former Unita soldiers and their families were leaving reception areas. A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, OCHA, said most were returning to their home areas spontaneously, without waiting for help with transport.

The number of people registered in the Catofe reception centre in Kwanza Sul had fallen from 16,805 to 2,540.

In Benguela Province, 4,358 former soldiers and 26,220 family members had been transported to their home areas from the Malongo, Passe, Chimboa and Chingongo reception areas.

In Kwanza Norte, one-third of the 800 demobilised Unita soldiers had left the Mussabo reception area and returned to the provinces of Bengo, Benguela, Luanda, Kwanza Sul, Malanje and Uíge.

The Malanje provincial authorities were preparing to transport 5,383 demobilised soldiers and 2,220 family members from the Ngangassol, Damba and Ngumbi reception areas to other provinces.

Humanitarian agencies working in Moxico said they had transported 1,966 demobilised soldiers from Calala to Mutemba, 7 km from Luau.

In Bengo, according to OCHA, 980 former Unita soldiers and their families had already started to receive resettlement kits, as well as cooking equipment, blankets, canvas and working tools.

Healers said to have discovered malaria cure

The Jornal de Angola reported on 7 February that members of the Kwanza Sul provincial Association of Therapeutists had discovered five medicinal plants for combating malaria.

The director of the association, Alfredo Candjilia, said the five plants discovered, after a year of research, were called ozolulu, osaku, omodalua, uliamente and kalitangui.

They would shortly be analysed by the National Public Health Laboratory to see if they were in fact suitable for that purpose.

The association was founded in 2001 and has 280 members. It works with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation. According to Alfredo Candjila, they had already cured more than 500 people suffering from malaria, tumours, urinary infections and mental problems, among other things.

New water harnessing system inaugurated in Moxico

A new water harnessing system was inaugurated in Luena on 4 February by Moxico provincial governor João Ernesto dos Santos ‘Liberdade’, as part of the commemorations of the 42nd anniversary of the start of the anti-colonial war in Angola.

The system, for which Unicef provided US$140,000 in funding, will provide piped water for the neighbourhoods of Sangongo, Sinai Velho and Huambo.

The work took six months and included water treatment and pumping facilities, as well as water stands and laundry sites.

That same day, the governor inaugurated the first phase of the water supply system to Luena from the main tank in the Tchifutchi neighbourhood.

The next phase, according to Pinto Luís, provincial director of the Ministry of Energy and Water, would be the rehabilitation of the internal water supply system in Luena, which was fifty years old.

Schooling in Bailundo

The Jornal de Angola reported on 6 February that the Huambo provincial government was making efforts to ensure that 10,000 children who had been forced to leave their home areas for various reasons would be enrolled this school year, which started in February.

According to Bento Catchiwa, director of education in Bailundo, last year 16,144 students were enrolled in general education and 4,268 in adult education.

He said there were 232 schools in Bailundo and there were plans to build another 12.

There were, however, difficulties caused by a shortage of teaching materials, technical facilities and means of transport.

Compiled by Marga Holness