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Rebel appeal to end Angola war



LUANDA, Angola -- Angola's UNITA rebels have called on the United States and Russia to intervene to help end the country's 26-year civil war.

In a statement sent to Reuters on Monday, UNITA said its leader Jonas Savimbi recognised dialogue as the only lasting solution to end the longest-running conflict in Africa.

The Angolan government has so far not responded to Savimbi's call.

The war has killed a million people and displaced 2.5 million in the southwest African nation.

UNITA -- the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - has called for the revival and modification of the United Nations-brokered 1994 Lusaka Peace Accord.

The accord collapsed amid heavy fighting in 1998.

"We feel that the new Bush administration in the United States can help to set up the mechanisms of contact, given its political and moral weight on the international scene," the statement said.

"The Russian Federation, in spite of still selling weapons to the government, can also give its contribution."

But UNITA ruled out participation by Portugal, the former colonial power.

It says the Lisbon government was part of the African conflict. However, prominent independent Portuguese personalities could help in the quest for peace in Angola.

The Angolan government has so far insisted taht if there is to be peace there must be full implementation of the Lusaka peace accord rather than renegotiation.

But UNITA said: "Bearing in mind the new circumstances of the political and social order in Angola, there is a need to reformulate the Lusaka Protocol in order to respond to the new situation in the country."





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• UNITA
• Angolan Embassy in Washington
• US Department of State
• Russian Government

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