wfn.org | Angola needs a meaningful peace to ensure reconstruction

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF-WS carries out emergency assistance instead of rehabilitation,
development work

GENEVA, 30 July 1998 (lwi) - If John Damerell, representative of the
Lutheran World Federation Department for World Service (LWF-WS) in Angola,
could make a wish he knows exactly what he would wish for: "A meaningful
peace in Angola, so that we could actively work for the reconstruction of
the country." In a recent interview with Lutheran World Information, he
explained how it is sometimes frustrating for the seven international and
260 national staff to see how the latest peace process, which began in
1994, seems to stagnate or even appear jeopardized.

The staff continue to be motivated by the certainty that "it is worth it"
to work for a population which, after 20 years of civil war, yearns for a
new and peaceful beginning. But the most recent developments have swayed
their hope. A settlement between the ruling Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA) has still not been reached. UNITA continues
to control parts of the country, particularly the north which is rich in
diamonds. Last June, LWF-WS staff had to be evacuated from east Angola when
UNITA brought more villages back under its control, expelling the recently
installed GURN (Government of Reconciliation and National Unity) officials.

It is no wonder the LWF-WS program in Angola has suffered. "Instead of
carrying out rehabilitation and development work we're being asked to
provide emergency assistance again," Damerell said. Out of Angola's total
population of 12 million, 1.3 million remain internally displaced - people
are still fleeing from the advancing UNITA units - as recently happened in
Moxico province, in the east of the country. They escape to Saurimo, for
example, a government-held town in a neighboring province in the northeast
of Angola where the LWF-WS provides 15,000 people with bare necessities
such as shelter, food and blankets.

In face of this development, Damerell said, it is particularly important to
make clear to the donor agencies that again emergency assistance funds are
needed: "Here, we're in a real dilemma since numerous donors, no longer
aiming at an emergency assistance situation, would like to support
rehabilitation and development programs."

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/