Bishops ready to mediate
Seek meetings with rival groups

The Catholic bishops of the West African nation of Angola have offered to mediate peace talks between the government and UNITA rebels in a decades-long civil war, according to the Reuters news service.

Bishop Luis Maria Perez de Onraita of Malange told Reuters, “The Church’s intention is to promote peace and itself as an independent institution but we face serious constraints.” He continued, “The Church has a certain power due to her relationship with the people and the government is not comfortable with this.” But Bishop Onraita said relations with the government are much improved over those they had with the former Marxist regime which was openly hostile to the Church.

The government in Luanda and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) have been locked in a civil war for 25 years, leaving about one million dead and 2.6 million as refugees. The government has refused to talk with the main rebel groups, preferring to sit down only with the political wing of the movement, UNITA Renovada, which has elected seats in the national assembly. Bishop de Onraita cautioned that the government must recognize that their war is with Jonas Savimbi, the longtime leader of UNITA, and not with UNITA Renovada.

Repeated peace deals have only temporarily halted fighting, with Savimbi returning to his guerilla campaign each time. The latest agreement, the 1994 Lusaka Accord, eventually collapsed into open fighting in 1998. While UNITA’s ability to wage war is now at a low level and the government controls most major cities and Atlantic coastal regions, the rebels control large sections of the