SOUTH AFRICA: UNITED NATIONS HAS ASKED SOUTH AFRICA TO JOIN PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN ANGOLA

Record ID: 337873

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: UNITED NATIONS HAS ASKED SOUTH AFRICA TO JOIN PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN ANGOLA
  • Date: 20th November 1994
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (NOVEMBER 20, 1994) 1. GV SOUTH AFRICAN DEPUTY PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE, FORIEGN MINISTER ALFRED NZO SEATED ON HIS RIGHT 0.06 2. CU MBEKI SPEAKING ABOUT SIGNING OF ANGOLAN PEACE ACCORD (ENGLISH) 0.30 3. GV NEWS CONFERENCE 0.37 4. CU MBEKI SPEAKING ABOUT UNITED NATIONS REQUEST THAT SOUTH AFRICA JOIN PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN ANGOAL (ENGLISH) 1.13 5. MV JOURNALISTS 1.17 6. CU MBEKI SPEAKING ABOUT U.N. MANDATE AND SOUTH AFRICAN INVOLVEMENT IN ANGOLA (ENGLISH) 2.29 7. MV NEWS CONFERENCE 2.32 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 2, MBEKI: "... WE BELIEVE A SUCCESSFUL MISSION. WHAT WE HAVE BEEN CONCERNED ABOUT HAS HAPPEND, THAT THE AGREEMENT NEGOTIATED IN LUSAKA SHOULD BE SIGNED AND A COMMITMENT MADE BY BOTH SIDES TO THE CONFLICT IN ANGOLA, A COMMITMENT MADE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT. BOTH OF THOSE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED." TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 4, MBEKI: "SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS HAS ALREADY REQUESTED ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE AND SOUTH AFRICA TO CONTRIBUTE TO WHAT IS CALLED UNAVEM 3, THE BODY OF UNITED NATIONS PEOPLE WHO WOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCESS OF ASSISTING IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THAT AGREEMENT ..... SO WE HAVE BEEN ASKED AS A COUNTRY BY SECRETARY-GENERAL BOUTROS-GHALI. WE HOPE THAT THAT PARTICULAR MATTER WILL BE DISCUSSED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT DURING THIS WEEK." TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 6, MBEKI: "THE WAY THE UNITED NATIONS HAS APPROACHED THIS MATTER IS THAT THE UNITED NATIONS WOULD BE INVOLVED IN TERMS OF ASSISTING IN THE IMPLEMENTATION, THE MAINTENANCE OF A CEASEFIRE. SO THAT WOULD BE A CONDITION FOR GOING INTO ANGOLA, THAT WE ARE NOT GOING THERE TO FIGHT BUT WOULD GO THERE, ALL THE COUNTRIES IN THE REGION WOULD GO THERE, FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASSISTING THE ANGOLANS TO MAINTAINING A PEACE WHICH THEY THEMSELVES WOULD HAVE EFFECTED AMONGST THEMSELVES. SO WE DON'T VISUALIZE THAT THERE'S GOING TO BE ANY OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES AND CERTAINLY AS I SAY, THE UNITED NATIONS MANDATE WHICH WOULD BRING SOUTH AFRICA INTO ANGOLA, THAT U.N. MANDATE IS NOT A MANDATE TO GO AND CONDUCT A WAR BUT IT IS A MANDATE TO HELP TO MAINTAIN THE PEACE. WE HAVE FROM THE BEGINNING BEEN AGAINST THE INVOLVEMENT OF ANY SOUTH AFRICANS IN THIS CONFLICT AND HAVE THEREFORE BEEN AGAINST THE INVOLVEMENT OF THESE PEOPLE WHO COME FROM (INDISTINCT) AND SURELY WE WOULD WANT THEM BACK AT HOME AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 5th December 1994 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa
  • Reuters ID: LVACD8OVZAIOUQXHHG0CBLPXFJ1H
  • Story Text: The United Nations has asked South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe to join a peacekeeping operation in Angola, South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday (November 20).

    Mbeki told reporters on his return from Lusaka, where he attended Sunday's signing of an accord to end 19 years of civil war in Angola, it would be a condition of the operation that it was designed to help Angolans and not to coerce them.

    "The secretary-general of the United Nations has already requested Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa to contribute to .....

    the body of United Nations people who would participate in the process of implementing that agreement," he said. Mbeki did not say whether the U.N. had asked for military or civilian backup for the Angolan accord.

    "We have been asked as a country by Secretary-General (Boutros) Boutros-Ghali. We hope that that particular matter will be discussed by the South African government during this week." Mbeki said there was also a call for a regional meeting to discuss the U.N. call for help in implementing Angola's second major peace bid.

    A 1991 Angolan peace pact collapsed after a year when rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, who declined to attend Sunday's signing and sent a representative instead, rejected defeat in a U.N.-sponsored election.

    "There's a general consensus that there should be a regional meeting as quickly as possible so that we would then look at the question of what we do as a region, more than respond merely as individual countries," Mbeki said.

    "(It) would be a condition .... for going into Angola, that we are not going there to fight, but would go there -- all the countries in the region -- for the purpose of assisting the Angolans to maintain a peace which they themselves would have effected.

    "We don't visualise that there's going to be any outbreak of hostitities and certainly .... the United Nations mandate, which would bring South Africa into Angola .... is not a mandate to go and conduct a war, but it's a mandate to help maintain the peace," he said.

    South Africa has resisted repeated calls from other countries in the region since white rule ended in April to send troops to hot spots on the continent. Mbeki said this applied also to Angola, where South African mercenaries have palyed a key role.

    "We have from the beginning been against the involvement of any South Africans in this conflict," he said.


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