Powersharing Transitional Government – 1998
1998
It was reported on March 17 that the process of appointing UNITA candidates to serve as Ambassadors to Canada, Cape Verde, India, Mexico, Poland, and UNESCO, was ongoing.1
Later in the year, UNITA members were temporarily suspended from the parliament and then reinstated shortly afterward. On 2 September 1998, five leading UNITA figures voted to set up a new faction called UNITA Renewal, or UNITA-R, led by Jorge Valentim, one of the new UNITA ministers. UNITA-R announced that Savimbi should be replaced as the leader of UNITA since he has “proved incapable of meeting the commitments freely accepted in the Lusaka Protocol and has adopted a policy which is contrary to the interests of the party members and the people of Angola.”2 President dos Santos moved to quickly recognize the new faction as the legitimate UNITA organization in order to isolate Savimbi.
On 4 September, the Angolan Government announced that it would no longer recognize the old UNITA or any members still loyal to the old UNITA. The recently appointed Minister of Geology and Mines, Marcos Samondo, and the Vice-Minister of Communication, Aurelio Joao Evangelista, who had refused to break from Jonas Savimbi, were formally dismissed by Presidential decree. The 70 UNITA parliamentarians in the National Assembly were also suspended. 55 of the 70 UNITA parliamentarians announced that they were in support of the break with Savimbi. On 25 September, UNITA-R leadership provided the National Assembly with a list of 57 nominees to replace the suspended 70 UNITA members. Of the 57 names, 55 were the previous members who denounced Savimbi plus 2 other new names. The National Assembly approved the list and reinstated the UNITA members on 23 September 1998.3
UNITA, led by Savimbi, and the Angolan Government returned to full civil war by the end of 1998.
Coding of this case stops in December 1998.