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ANGOLA
Call for cease-fire
Bishops make peace appeal
At the end of July, Angola’s Catholic bishops ended a four-day meeting studying ways to bring peace to the African nation by calling for a cease-fire between the government and UNITA rebels.
The leaders also called for the two sides in the decades-long civil war to promote a dialogue in which civil society can take part. “This endless war continues to destroy the country, to decimate its people and to widen the gulf of hatred between Angolans, making reconciliation ever harder,” they said.
The Congress of Peace began with a message from Pope John Paul II sounding the themes of the conference and urging the two sides to be bold and courageous in finding peace for Angolans. It was the climax of an intense campaign by the Church to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
Angola’s civil war began when Portugal granted the country independence in 1975. Three peace deals have since failed, with the latest round of fighting beginning in December 1998. Millions of have died in the fighting and millions more uprooted from their homes with an estimated 1 million people—10 percent of the population—relying on declining international aid.
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