UN welcomes ceasefire agreement between Angolan Government, UNITA

Welcoming the recent signing of a ceasefire agreement between the Government of Angola and the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the United Nations envoy to the country has reiterated the UN's support in helping to establish peace in the war-torn nation.

The ceasefire accord "concludes a first phase of a process, which we all want to be irreversible and which we all want to bring peace to Angola," Mussagy Jeichande, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Representative to the country, said in a statement to the signing ceremony on Saturday in Luena.

"Peace is a process, which requires an open and sincere dialogue," Mr. Jeichande said. "It is the only way to achieve the true reconciliation of the Angolan family."

Mr. Jeichande also reiterated the UN's readiness to "help that peace, democracy, progress and social welfare become realities available for the Angolan nationals."

Meanwhile, Mr. Annan's Special Adviser for Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, is set to arrive tomorrow in Angola on a fact-finding mission to examine the current peace process and clarify the UN's role in it, a UN spokesman said Monday in New York.

Mr. Gambari will also seek to encourage the parties to take full advantage of the recent positive developments in Angola to move the peace process forward under the Lusaka Protocol.