Cease Fire: Lusaka Protocol

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Cease Fire: Lusaka Protocol

Implementations

Cease Fire – 1994

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leaders signed a peace agreement in Lusaka in November 1994. Observers to the event expressed their immediate skepticism to the press that the ceasefire would hold.1

Portuguese television reported on 17 November 1994 that government troops and UNITA rebels were still fighting. UNITA claimed that after the ceasefire, the government attacked rebel positions throughout the country. The claim was denied by President dos Santos.2

Government forces dropped bombs on Bimbe near Huambo city in the central highlands, killing 11 people.3

UNITA broadcasted that the government continued to attack UNITA positions near Huambo province.4

  1. “Angola Warring Parties Agree to Six-Day Ceasefire,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 16, 1994.
  2. “Fighting Continues in Angola Despite Ceasefire,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 17, 1994.
  3. “Angola Troops Kill 11,” The Independent (London), November 30, 1994
  4. “Angola: UNITA Says Government Attacking UNITA-Controlled Positions in Huambo,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, December 16, 1994.

Cease Fire – 1995

UNITA military leaders and government leaders met in February to discuss violations. Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) leaders remarked that UNITA was operating as if there had been no accord and not pulling back to the agreed upon areas.1

The UN Angola Verification Mission-2 investigated a report that the FAA had launched an attack on a UNITA position near Quilombo.2

Angola government troops attacked UNITA strongholds in April in Huila Province. Residents in Huila said that they were in a war.3

UNAVEM-3 reported that 47 of the planned 52 team verification sites for monitoring the ceasefire had been established.4

The Joint Commission held its 12th regular session on 28 March 1995. It declared phase one of the disengagement of forces as adequately completed.5

UNAVEM-3 reported 137 ceasefire violations in a month.6

UNITA leaders reported that they had uncovered a secret government “war plan” to be carried out against UNITA in the future in an effort to take UNITA’s territory.7

The New York Times ran a story on competition between groups of Government soldiers and groups of UNITA soldiers mining the Luachimo River for diamonds. Many of the attacks between the two sides were reported as being committed by “freelancers”, often times Generals from both sides that fought only to keep mining.8

In September, 105 civilians were killed in a rebel attack on Calepi. Residents said that the attacks were personal in nature.9

UNAVEM reported 77 ceasefire violations in October and 71 in November, but concluded that the military situation remained calm in most regions.10

  1. “Angola: FAA, UNITA Generals Meet in Waku Kungo, Agree to Limited Disengagement,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, February 6, 1995.
  2. “Angola: Government Troops Reportedly Violate Cease-Fire,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, February 15, 1995.
  3. “Angola: Government Forces Reportedly on the Offensive in Huila Province,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, April 10, 1995.
  4. “Second Progress Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III),” U.N. Security Council (S/1995/274), April 7, 1995.
  5. Ibid.
  6. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III),” U.N. Security Council (S/1995/588), July 17, 1995.
  7. “Angola: UNITA Sources on Government Forces’ “War Plan”, Breaches of Cease-Fire in East,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, August 18, 1995.
  8. “Foes in Angola Still at Odds, Over Diamonds,” The New York Times, September 15, 1995.
  9. “Angola Government Military Claims 105 Dead in UNITA Rebel Attack,” Associated Press Worldstream, September 21, 1995.
  10. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III),” U.N. Security Council (S/1995/1012), December 7, 1995.

Cease Fire – 1996

Alioune Blondin Beye, the special U.N. envoy to Angola, reported that the peace process in Angola was badly stalled, with both sides still deployed and engaging each other. “Two years? This is beginning to look like a very long time,” concedes Mr. Beye.1

From 27 June to 4 October, UNAVEM reported 55 ceasefire violations (roughly 18 per month).2

  1. “Angola: U.N. Officials Worry as UNITA Edges Away From Peace,” IPS-Inter Press Service, October 8, 1996.
  2. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III),” U.N. Security Council (S/1996/827) October 4, 1996.

Cease Fire – 1997

In November, the UN mission in Angola reported that “ceasefire violations by both the former UNITA rebel group and government forces have escalated in the past month.” MINUA reported that over roughly a two week span, 30 ceasefire violations took place, with 14 in the previous week.1

As an indicator of escalating conditions on the ground, the UN mission issued a statement asking the government to “renounce any idea of unleashing a military offensive against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).”2

MONUA military and civilian police observers, particularly in UNITA-controlled areas, were prevented from carrying out their patrols on several occasions and were even harassed and physically attacked.3

  1. “UN Says Ceasefire Violations on the Rise in Angola,” Agence France Presse, November 5, 1997.
  2. Ibid.
  3. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1997/959), December 4, 1997.

Cease Fire – 1998

In March, 2 UN helicopters were shot at by UNITA troops in the Cambundi Catembo area, which was under UNITA control. Another similar attack on a UN helicopter took place on 18 February in Malanje Province.1

MONUA reported that “Armed attacks against villages, local government authorities, as well as United Nations and other international personnel, have become an almost permanent feature.”2

MONUA observers confirmed various troop movements of the Angolan Armed Forces “in Malange, Uige, Huambo, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul Provinces.”3

Major-General Phillip Sibanda of the Zimbabwean army, the former commander of the United Nations Observer Force in Angola, stated that his view of local conditions indicated that the FAA and UNITA were engaged in a “military build-up” to possibly resume war.4

Over 200 people died in a massacre in the small village of Mussuku as surrounding troops bombed the village. The government stated that UNITA was responsible for the attack and declared that it would retaliate against UNITA. “The government cannot cross its arms when UNITA is kidnapping young people and forcing them into military training, acquiring military equipment, sabotaging the country’s infrastructure and attacking and occupying strategic places.” 5

In the last issuance of 1998, MONUA reported that the Angolan government and UNITA forces had continued to conduct extensive military operations and that MONUA personnel, under phase IV of their security plan, would withdraw from all provinces.6

Media sources reported that the Angolan countryside was at war.7

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program coded the conflict between the Angolan government and UNITA as reaching the threshold of “war” in 1998 with over 1000 total deaths in the year.8

  1. “Angola Peace Monitor,” Africa News 4, no. 7 (March 1998).
  2. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1998/524), June 17, 1998.
  3. Ibid.
  4. “UN Military Commander Says War Build-Up Underway in Angola,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, June 2, 1998.
  5. “Angola Nears Civil War Outbreak: After Four Years, Peace Talks End Amid Massacre,” The Ottawa Citizen, July 26, 1998.
  6. “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA),” U.N. Security Council (S/1998/1110), November 23, 1998.
  7. “UNITA: Back to the Path of War,” Africa News, August 5, 1998.
  8. “UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia,” Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), accessed February 22, 2013, www.ucdp.uu.se/database.