STATEMENT BY
MR. MOHAMMAD KAMAL YAN YAHAYA
DEPUTY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALAYSIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
ON THE SITUATION IN ANGOLA
THURSDAY, 27 JULY 2000
Madame President,
My delegation wishes to express its appreciation to the Secretary-General for his succint yet comprehensive Report on the situation in Angola. We would also like to thank Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari and Special Adviser on Africa for introducing the Report and for his additional remarks. We wish to welcome the presence of H.E. Mr. Albino Mahengo, Minister for Social Affairs of the Representative of Angola at this meeting and thank him for his statement.
2. My delegation is dismayed at the continuing fighting in Angola and the prolongation of the devastating 24-year-old civil war there, without prospects of an early resolution of the conflict. We continue to believe, that in spite of the recent successful military campaign against UNITA, there can be no military solution to the conflict. Unfortunately, the war persists because UNITA has made it hard for the Government to believe that it is a trustworthy negotiating partner. Yet, a lasting solution is most unlikely to be achieved without the participation of UNITA in a peace process. It is imperative, therefore, that there should be renewed efforts, in the search for a political settlement.
3. The Council has repeatedly pronounced that UNITA bears the primary responsibility for the continuation of civil war in Angola which had left more than one million dead, many more maimed and a quarter of the entire population displaced. UNITA’s ability to continue with its military campaign is due to its lucrative illegal diamond trade. It is for the purpose of stopping UNITA’s means to wage war that the Angola Sanctions Committee was established under the energetic leadership of Ambassador Fowler of Canada. It is imperative that the Sanctions Committee continues with its work with undiminished vigour even with the imminent departure of its current dynamic chairman if the Council is to succeed in degrading UNITA’s capacity to pursue its objectives through military means. As one of the Vice Chair of that Committee, Malaysia wishes to take this opportunity to pay the highest tribute to Chairman Fowler, to whom the Council owes a deep debt of gratitude for his leadership of the Committee, and his enormous contributions in the work of the Committee.
4. We are deeply concerned at the precarious humanitarian situation in Angola. OCHA indicated in its Mid Term Review for Angola that an estimated 2 million people continued to rely on food aid and that as many as 2.75 million people may need some kind of humanitarian assistance in the months ahead. Hospitals in the main towns are devoid of equipment and medicine. Children’s health in particular has been hurt by the lack of food and health services. The situation was made worse by an outbreak of polio last year which affected more than a thousand children. Infant mortality rates in Angola are among the highest in the world. It is estimated that close to 1.5 million children live in a state of absolute poverty, and more than 100,000 have lost touch with their parents. Meanwhile, little information is available on the condition of the population outside of government-controlled areas. Clearly, the situation remains desperate. With an estimated 1.4 million landmines per person in the whole country, and some 86,000 disabled landmine victims, the situation makes it impossible for the IDPs to return to their homes and to till their fields. The most affected are those who fled their homes and farms to seek refuge and sustenance in urban areas. Almost as seriously affected are those who abandoned their homes during earlier conflicts, as well as the original residents of the urban areas. These shifts have changed the demography of the country from one predominantly rural-based to one in which around 60% of the population now live in overcrowded urban centres. As a result, there has been increasing physical and psychological pressures on these urban dwellers who must scramble for the same meagre resources, much of which come from an equally overstretched international assistance community.
5. My delegation reiterates its concern at the lack of access by international humanitarian workers to populations that are at risk, especially in Guerrilla-controlled areas due to rebel activities in several provinces. The location and timing of guerrilla attacks, which often include looting, physical assaults and destruction of crops and homes, are unpredictable. In fact almost all areas along the eastern and southern borders remain out of bounds to humanitarian agencies. With very limited road access there is increased reliance on air transportation which in turn increases the delivery costs for humanitarian assistance. Nevertheless, we are gratified to note that the extension of state administration in several provinces has given aid agencies access to thousands of people in need of help who were previously beyond reach.
Madame President,
6. We are also concerned at the plight of the children caught in the conflict, many of whom are directly involved as combatants and many others traumatised in other ways such as through displacement, the death of and separation from families and physical injuries.
7. My delegation is particularly alarmed at the disclosure by the World Food Programme (WFP) in May that it might face a possible breakdown in the food pipeline from the end of September unless new contributions were received. We note that in an effort to minimise hardship during the lean months of September and October, WFP has reduced by 20% the number of people receiving direct food aid assistance during June and July. On the other hand, we would like to commend OCHA, in partnership with the government of Angola, for its nation-wide campaign to distribute agricultural inputs due to start in September and October as part of the government’s efforts to promote agricultural self-sufficiency.
8. The problem of refugees and internally displaced persons numbering several millions as a result of the conflict in Angola remains intractable. Even more disturbing is the fact that almost 4 million Angolans are affected by the war. We must, therefore, heed the recent appeal made by the High Commissioner for Refugees, for generous international assistance and to respond favourably to the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Angola. We should also take into account what was said by Mrs. Sadako Ogata regarding the difficulty to raise cash to aid displaced people within their own countries than for other refugee groups. Mrs. Ogata’s appeal for US8.4 million to assist some 300,000 people who have been forced to flee homes in three provinces in Angola, where 1.5 million people have been displaced since 1998, deserves our fullest support. We therefore commend the United States and others for making their pledges recently. Making a real difference for IDPs will require a very substantial and sustained commitment of resources.
9. In conclusion, Madam President, we wish to underscore the need to address Africa’s conflicts in a comprehensive manner given the linkages among many of the crises on that continent. We cannot fail to see, the negative spillover effects of the civil war in Angola, to the neighbouring countries, including, very recently in Namibia resulting civilian losses as well. Most of these deaths have been blamed on UNITA