The Angolan army and the UNITA rebel movement signed an accord to end a devastating civil war that has claimed more than 500,000 lives since 1975. Saturday's peace deal resurrects a 1994 accord signed in the Zambian capital Lusaka and sets out modalities for disarming UNITA fighters, assigning them to cantonments across the country and integrating them into the government army. The prospect of peace emerged after the battlefield death on February 22 of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. His second in command, General Antonio Dembo, was also killed in the same battle. "The two sides pledge to put an end to hostilities and restore peace throughout Angolan territory," read the accord signed by deputy army chief of staff General Geraldo Nunda and the commander in chief of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), General Abreu Kamorteiro. "I am certain that this act will reestablish definitive peace in Angola," Kamorteiro said at a ceremony at army headquarters in Lwena attended by top commanders of both the army and UNITA.
Whoa! That's pretty unexpected, isn't it? I mean, that never happens, does it? Just because Savimbi was iced? They killed Mussolini and the Fascisti keep right on, didn't they? And Hitler? Doorknob dead, and the Nazis kept up their resistance. And the Palestinians, with poor old Arafat, colder than a mackerel, and what did they do... Oh. He's not dead. Well, you know what I mean. |