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Angola rebels buy top-level support in Africa-UN

UNITED NATIONS: Two sitting African presidents were accused in a UN report of fuelling Angola's civil war by enabling the country's rebels to circumvent international arms, oil, financial and diamond sanctions.

Angola's high quality gems have allowed the rebel UNITA movement to buy weapons, mainly from Bulgaria. The rough diamonds are shipped to Antwerp, Belgium, where the government has done little to stop gem trafficking, according to informed sources and excerpts of the report obtained by Reuters.

Presidents Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso are alleged to have engaged in sanctions-busting activities on behalf of UNITA rebels, said the report by the UN Security Council's Angola sanctions committee.

The UN study, drawn up by a panel of experts, was unusual in its boldness in fingering current and past officials among United Nations member countries.

The Security Council imposed a fuel, travel and arms embargo on the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, in 1993 for failing to honour a peace agreement that nearly ended the country's 30-year civil war. Nearly half a million people have died in the fighting.

In mid-1998, the embargoes were tightened to include a freeze on bank accounts of UNITA leaders and a ban on diamond exports, which have brought the rebels $4 billion since 1992.

In addition to the two presidents, individuals, companies and officials in Gabon, Rwanda, the Congo Republic, Ivory Coast and South Africa were implicated in the report.

They included Rwanda's powerful vice president Paul Kagame and the former presidents of the Ivory Coast, Henri Konan Bedie, and of the Congo Republic, Pascal Lissouba.

BULGARIA SUPPLIES ARMS, BELGIUM LETS IN DIAMONDS

Angola's diamonds have allowed, once financed by the United States and the former white South African government, to buy favour from African governments and purchase weapons abroad, mainly from Bulgaria, the report said.

Most of the illegal diamonds end up in Antwerp, the world's largest market for rough diamonds. Belgium has done little to curb the illegal trade, fearing brokers would "take their business elsewhere," the report said.

The panel cited "the apparent inability or unwillingness of the responsible authorities in Belgium effectively to police the smuggling of illegal Angolan diamonds onto the market there." One Antwerp trader openly trained diamond experts working for UNITA.

In discussing the African leaders, the report accused Togo's Eyadema of replacing the late dictator of the former Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, as Savimbi's patron by forging certificates to ease the imports of illegal weapons.

Eyadema, according to the report based in part on UNITA defectors, allegedly received diamonds in payment for allowing Savimbi's family to live in his country.

Burkina Faso's Compaore was accused of sending Savimbi several planes of diesel fuel last year and providing passports to UNITA officials.

Rwanda's Kagame was said to be active in letting planes refuel en route to UNITA's Angola bases after receiving military aid from Savimbi. Rwanda also served as a meeting place for diamond buyers from Antwerp, the report said

The report said that officials at the "highest levels" in Burkina Faso and Rwanda violated the ban on diamond trading.

BUSTING SANCTIONS-BUSTERS

The report's recommendations are harsh and would place sanctions, such as an arms embargo, on states that violate the weapons ban. It also says states should bar traders violating the embargo from any ties to the world diamond industry.

And it proposes to stop conferences in countries where government officials are involved in sanctions busting.

De Beers, which controls close to two-thirds of the world's uncut diamond market, in February pared down its Angola business to contractual obligations with the Angola government, thereby attempting to avoid illegal purchases.

The South African conglomerate, owned by the London-based Anglo-American corporation, and other diamond firms, including Israeli ones now in Angola, were not criticised in the report.

South Africa's ambassador Dmisana Kumalo welcomed the report, which implicated South African individuals and companies for diamond and arms smuggling. "The South African government has cooperated in the investigation and provided the panel with details on South African citizens and companies known to have supported " he said.

The report was the brainchild of Canada's ambassador Robert Fowler, chairman of the council's Angola sanctions committee, who travelled to the region and set up a panel of experts to investigate violations.

Fowler called a late Friday night meeting of his committee to discuss leaks of early versions of the report. But he decided not to release it until Wednesday, at which time it would be translated into the five official UN languages, diplomats said.

Angola's envoys and those from other African nations awaiting the report expressed annoyance their governments would read about it in the press before receiving a copy.-Reuters