Amnesty – 1994
1994
It was evident from the comments of mediators, such as Alioune Blondin Beye, the U.N. special envoy to Angola who mediated a year of peace talks in Lusaka, that amnesty had been a precondition for the agreement. “Beye said the Angolan parliament last week approved a general amnesty for the war, meaning rebel fighters and officials would be free from prosecution. That likely influenced the rebels to proceed with peace talks.”1 Alioune Beye was referring to “Law No. 18/1994-Amnesty Law” passed on 10 November 1994. The amnesty law contained 8 Articles:
Article 1
Amnesty granted for all crimes committed against the internal security of the State and all others related with these, committed by national citizens within the scope of the military conflict after the elections from the 1st October 1992 until the date of signature of the Lusaka Protocol.
Article 2
Amnesty granted for all military crimes committed during the period referred to in the previous article, except crimes of fraud with violence which resulted in death, as foreseen in No. 3 of article 18 and No. 3 of article 19 of Law No. 4/94 of the 28th of January.
Article 3
Amnesty also granted for all common crimes punishable with sentences of up to 8 years, as well as crimes punishable with correctional sentences and contraventions committed by soldiers and non-soldiers during the period referred to in article 1 of the present law.
Article 4
1. Sentences applied according to the punishment of crimes not covered in the present law benefit of a pardon of:
1/4 for common crimes and for soldiers, when the crime committed did not result in the death of the victim;
1/8 for the rest of military crimes, when they result in the death of the victim.
2. Contents of the previous number include pending lawsuits, as well as those to be initiated for infringements committed during the period referred to in article 1 of the present law.
Article 5
Pardon granted on condition resulting from the beneficiary not committing any fraudulent crime punishable by a heavy prison sentence during the 5 years following the date of publication of this law which terminates the serving of the sentence or during its fulfillment.
Article 6
The Law of Amnesty does not cover civil responsibility emerging from crimes committed, in terms of paragraph 1 of article 125, of the Penal Code.
Article 7
All which contradict the contents of the present law are revoked.
Article 8
The law enters into effect on the date of the signature of the Lusaka Protocol.
It was evident that the law contained ambiguities. Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 all add exceptions to the general amnesty contained in Article 1. Furthermore, the amnesty period clearly ended with the signing of the Accord, while UNITA and the Government of Angola continued to engage each other after the Accord. It was uncertain, for instance, whether UNITA troops still deployed in Huambo months or years after the Accord was signed would remain covered.2
In December of 1994 General Lukamba Paulo Gato, UNITA’s Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that the Lusaka Peace Talks were in danger over ambiguities on amnesty and the military actions of the Government against UNITA following the Accord. General Gato mentioned specifically that he considered the amnesty provision in the Lusaka Accord to be ambiguous as to whether it granted legal amnesty for every UNITA combatant. According to Gato, “É the Lusaka Protocol did not provide for any amnesty whatever. Instead, what it provided for was national reconciliation or, in other words, mutual forgiveness.” 3
- “Warring Factions in Angola Sign Truce,” The Associated Press, November 15, 1994.
- “Amnesty Law [Angola],” Law No. 18/1994 of November 10, 1994, November 15, 1994.
- “Angola: UNITA Warns It Will Have to Defend Itself if Government Continues Logic of War,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, December 16, 1994.