Posted on 08/03/2002 5:02:30 AM PDT by jalisco555
Luanda — The Angolan government and UNITA rebels have declared the official end to their nearly three-decade old civil war.
"The war has ended," Defence Minister Kundi Paihama said during a ceremony in Luanda where 30 UNITA generals and high-ranking officers joined the Angolan army.
Rebel leader General Paulo Lukamba Gato said that "UNITA has transformed and now there is peace."
About 5,000 of the former guerrillas have already merged with the army under the terms of April's cease-fire. Most of the 80,000 former guerrillas and some 300,000 family members, however, face an uncertain future in a country facing famine and 70-per-cent unemployment.
Despite its natural wealth — the southwest African country exports more oil to the United States than does Kuwait — the war has left much of the country is in ruins.
The country is one of the most heavily land-mined in the world. There are as many as 5 million mines spread across Angola and dozens of people are killed or injured each month, the government says.
The conflict has driven one-third of the population from their homes, and aid agencies say up to half a million people face starvation because of the fighting. Human rights groups blame both the rebels and the Angolan army for the humanitarian crisis.
The civil war began after Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975, and UNITA fought the Soviet-backed Marxist government. The CIA and South Africa backed the rebels.
The conflict continued almost nonstop until Angola's army killed the rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, in February, which led to the cease-fire and continuing peace talks.
I wrote a report about this as a sophmore in HS.
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