|
UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (UPI) _ U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan is expressing "deep concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation
in Angola."
Annan today said, "The extremely precarious
security situation now requires the distribution of most humanitarian aid by air,
an effort now threatened by funding."
He said that if funds do not become available
immediately, "the entire humanitarian effort will stop and hundreds of thousands
of Angolans will face severe malnutrition, disease and death."
He appealed for cooperation from the government
of Angola and the UNITA rebels to allow for access to all those in need of assistance
and to the international donor community "to urgently support humanitarian activities
in Angola to avoid a massive human tragedy."
The diamond-rich African nation, torn by
civil strife, also was the focus of the U.N. Security Council today.
The situation is blamed on UNITA which continues
to get arms, despite Security Council Sanctions. It gets funds for its guns from
the sale of diamonds. Many arms are believed sold by East European nations.
The chairman of the council's sanctions
committee, Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, briefed the council today on his fact-finding
trip last month to Angola and neighboring nations on ways to stop what he called
"sanctions busting."
"The purpose was not to investigate
but bring home to the countries of the region...the fact that this murderous war
has been going on for far, far too long," Fowler said. "That's 24 or 40
years depending on where you want to start your counting.
"Remember that a million people have
been killed in this war, that there are 1.6 million internally displaced, half that
number, in excess of 820,000, since last December alone," he said.
Among Fowler's recommendations where that
Annan be asked to set up civilian sanctions monitors "possessing expertise relating
to customs inspections."
He said they might be deployed in Burkina
Faso, the Ivory Coast, in Congo, Brazzaville; Mozambique, and Rwanda and at airfields
in South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, the Ukraine, Uganda, Zambia and in Angolan ports.
All rights reserved.
-back to top-
|