U.N. Frustrated Over Angola Stubbornness

UNITED NATIONS —  For 10 days, U.N. staff members have waited with anger and frustration to find out the fate of 10 colleagues aboard a plane that crashed in Angola. Both sides in the African nation’s civil war have refused to stop fighting long enough to allow rescuers to reach the crash site.

Over the weekend, a second aircraft with U.N. personnel was reported shot down over Angola, and their fate also remains uncertain.

Despite urgent pleas, neither the government nor UNITA rebels have made efforts to cooperate with search teams.

At the United Nations, which saw 45 humanitarian aid workers and peacekeepers killed on duty last year, diplomats and staff members Monday voiced rage and despair.

“The secretary-general expressed his outrage and said all threats to U.N. personnel must stop immediately,” said Kofi Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard. “What we are looking for is cooperation from both sides. Until both sides cease fire and allow our search-and-rescue missions to go in, nothing can be accomplished.”

When he learned that a second U.N. plane had gone down, Annan said in a statement: “There can be no excuse for any delay on any side in disclosing all relevant information about the fate of the passengers and crews.

“The secretary-general expects the government of Angola to honor its pledge to provide all possible assistance in the efforts to rescue survivors,” the statement added, demanding also that UNITA cooperate without delay in search-and-rescue missions.

In Angola, Annan’s stern message was echoed by Benon Sevan, the U.N. undersecretary-general for security, who was sent to find out what happened. Sevan said the lack of cooperation is unacceptable.

At U.N. headquarters, the Security Council convened to consider the situation.

“The council members expressed outrage at the disappearance of the second United Nations chartered aircraft,” said Brazilian Ambassador Celso L. N. Amorim, the council’s president.

On Dec. 26, a U.N.-chartered C-130 transport with 10 U.N. staffers and four crew members apparently was shot down near Huambo in Angola’s central highlands. On Saturday, another C-130 with eight people, four of them U.N. staff members, reportedly was shot down minutes after taking off from the Huambo airport. The city is under government control but is surrounded by UNITA rebels.

The opposing sides in the conflict have accused each other of downing both aircraft. The United Nations is investigating to determine who was responsible for the crashes.

The United Nations maintains 1,000 peacekeepers in Angola to oversee an accord to end civil war in the former Portuguese colony, rich in diamonds and oil. It was given independence in 1975.

Fighting between government forces and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola flared up Dec. 5, after the collapse of a precarious 4-year-old treaty designed to halt the war.

Diplomats say the danger peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers face in war-torn areas is a growing problem for the United Nations.

In his Christmas message to the staff, Annan took note of a “dramatic escalation of attacks on personnel, both civilian and military, who dare to wear U.N. blue in serving the cause of peace.”

Annan said that staff security remains a “cardinal concern” and that he would be looking to take steps this year to increase protection for U.N. personnel.