Wide, trucks along road, sunrise, trucks, soldiers Holmes: A few hundred kilometres south of the equator, the dawn comes swiftly. But in the central highlands of Angola, the approach of peace has been grindingly slow. 02.21.24
On the outskirts of the government stronghold of Huambo, a battalion of blue helmets from distant Uruguay guards an invisible frontier.
Map of Africa, Angola, Luanda, Huambo labelled, UN trucks, men talking, yellow
Two hours down the road, the inhabitants of the town of Kuito still depend for their survival on the convoys of the World Food Program. 03.01.02
truck passes
But between the two towns is the open bush - controlled by UNITA guerrillas. They're not laying ambushes any more. But in every village along the route, the checkpoints are still there.
According to the Lusaka Agreement, there's suppose to be free passage throughout Angola. But travel through UNITA territory is still difficult and sometimes impossible.
Interview with manSuper:ISAIAS SAMAKUVA Samakuva:
There are still lots of distance between the two sites, people are still not trusting each other. 04.07.19
Chief Negotiator, UNITA Samakuva walking from car, speaking at conference
Holmes: Mr. Samakuva is UNITA'S chief representative at the Joint Commission which meets week after week in the capital, Luanda, to try to wrangle the peace process forward.
The main item on everyone's agenda, as it has been for months, is the snail's pace at which UNITA'S army is demobilising.
Helicopter, Fx: Helicoptor sound 04.48.00
solddiers, people and tents, men working, people walking
In a stretch of open bush near Huambo, the UN have set up one of four quartering centres, to register and disarm UNITA soldiers. According to the Lusaka Agreement UNITA's entire force of 60,000 should already have come into these camps on their way to join a new national army or to return to civilian life.
At the time we filmed, only 700 soldiers had surrendered. A dozen recent arrivals were lackadaisically building shelters for their families.
Under fierce international pressure, thousands more have come in recent days. But the process is still way behind schedule.
Jonathan Holmes to camera, CU soldiers, Holmes to camera
Holmes:
What those UNITA soldiers think about the future we don't know because they are not talking but ask the UN, the NGO's and especially ordinary Angolans whether this time there'll really be peace and all you'll get is a shrug. 05.43.13
Because they've seen it all before, just four years ago - the peace talks, the promises, the soldiers straggling in from the bush with old guns and new excuses.
dos Santos getting out of car, shaking hands, Sivimbi walking into room
President dos Santos of the MPLA and Dr. Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, both agreed to abide by the result of nationwide elections. 06.07.23
But Savimbi's elation and his respect for democracy were short lived. Soundly defeated at the polls, he turned again to the gun.
Bombed out Music 06.32.04
buildings,
tracking shot of damage buildings, people standing around Holmes: What followed was the most savage and destructive phase of this twenty-year old war. Towns like Kuito, government-held islands besiege for months by UNITA forces, took the brunt.
Pan up to child's face, Schaad speaking in car, trucks, people watching Schaad: When we first arrived here in late '93, these people were skin and bones, it was really bad, it's unbelievable what these people have put up with. 06.54.04
Super: David Schaad, World Food Program.
Holmes:
Through most of 1994, sporadic fighting continued. Kuito could only be supplied by air. It wasn't until late last year - months after the Lusaka Accord was signed - that the World Food Program was able to start supplying the town by road.
Children playing, girl washing, crippled man, grave site, sick baby crying, sick children
Most of Kuito's citizens still live in dire poverty, scrabbling a living in the ruins of their town. Backyards and empty lots are full of graves. Everyone has someone to mourn. 07.35.14
NB: In full version, Eduardo Mussongo appears here.
And people are still dying, not from shellfire and bullets, and not for the most part, in the towns.
The main victims are children - the main killer, Kwashiokor - a form of malnutrition that turns children into plump looking bundles of apathy.
Super: Elisabeth Neilsen, Medicins sans Frontieres Nielsen: Actually they are eating but it's not a balanced food, it means that they are not getting enough proteins.
(NB: Babys full name Belita Massozi.)
Holmes:
Children like Belita are dying because their fathers have no seed to plant and their fields are sown instead with landmines.
Interview with HawkinsSuper:PETER HAWKINSSave the Children (U.K.)
Hawkins:
The welfare in this country is probably at it's lowest at the moment. The under five infant mortality rate is 320 per 1000 - that's one in three children do not reach the age of five. That's the highest mortality rate in the world. 08.50.20
And yet it's a very very rich country. It produces 635,000 barrels of oil per day, the minerals - diamonds and other such minerals are immense. That is also part of the problem - the division of the richness of this country, the vision of the economic spoils creates the sort of problem we are seeing today.
Sunset, pan to building, interior with people eating and talking Holmes: In the seafront hotels and hilltop palaces of Luanda, a tiny elite of apparatchiks live high on the hog. 09.25.17
Angola's oil brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year. But the government has mortgaged much of that revenue for years ahead to pay for arms. The rest, it's rumoured, ends up in private bank accounts abroad.
Diamonds, aeriel shots of mine, map - Lucapa labelled, truck, men working If the MPLA has grown rich on oil, UNITA has mot of the diamonds. Angola has a good proportion of the finest gem diamonds in the world. 09.56.02
They're buried in the clay of the river valleys in the remote northeast. Four-fifths of the diamond region is controlled by UNITA. diamonds have financed its armies and its generals for years.
In the whole province of Lunda Norte, only a tiny area around the town of Lucapa is under government control.
Just outside the town, the government mining company, ENDIAMA, scoops and washes and filters the precious river gravel. But even here, there's fierce competition for the riches concealed in the mud.
Men with guns, aerial of river and mine It's a remote and lawless corner of the world. ENDIAMA trusts no one but it's own black-shirted private army to guard the mine sites. 11.05.02
Just down river, on land the government controls, swarms of illegal miners burrow into the clay. These are the garimpeiros, the diggers. They are heavily armed and trigger happy. This was the closest the company would allow us to go.
Men counting money Music 11.44.03
listening to music
market, soldier walking through crowd But in the market in the neighbouring village, it wasn't hard to track down the illegal diamond dealers.
The prices for everyday goods here are astronomical. With inflation running at several thousand percent a year, the Angolan kwanza is use for only the smallest purchases.
To buy diamonds, you need U.S. dollars. The majority of the diamonds bought and sol here end up being smuggled across the border to Zaire. And in fact very few of the smugglers end up in jail - because those who are supposed to catch them are busy - digging, dealing and smuggling for themselves.
Aerial of river an green fields, The government is now bringing in crack troops to clear the garimpeiros forcibly from the east bank of the river. 12.35.07
Holmes to camera
Holmes:
The one thing the government army is not going to do is to cross the river into those hills there because that's UNITA land and if it did that, it would be back to full scale war. 12.48.05
The fact is that land here in the Lundas is not just a matter of a strategic asset, of a military value, land here is diamonds and money, and many people believe that whatever UNITA says, it's not going to demobilise in this part of the world because to do so would be to lose its entire wealth.
Interview with CarneiroSuper:General HIGINO CARNEIROChief
Government Spokesperson Carneiro:
The UNITA troops must leave, that's what the Lusaka Agreement established, and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. They have to withdraw, otherwise they're violating the agreement. 13.17.20
Interview with Hawkins, damaged buildings, pan of flowers, children, damaged buildings and tanks
Hawkins:
Fourteen months down the line, the evidence is very very weak that this process will be able to succeed to its final conclusion. The fear is that the whole process will collapse in one form or another. 13.37.20
Holmes:
The churchbells are cracked, the churches are in ruins. But all over Angola, the faithful gather to pray for peace.
People playing Singing 14.16.21
music, singing,
dancing For decades, Angola's leaders were deaf to the voices of their own people - they were dancing to the tune of their cold war paymasters.
Now at last, the outside world has joined the chorus that's pleading to the end to the suffering. But oil and diamonds and the lure of absolute power make good earplugs.
There's still no certainty that the people will be heard.
George Negus
Negus:
Angola, dos Santos and Savimbi of course, are still talking about combining their forces and forming a government of national unity but don't hold your breath. 15.16.07
On the outskirts of the government stronghold of Huambo, a battalion of blue helmets from distant Uruguay guards an invisible frontier.
Map of Africa, Angola, Luanda, Huambo labelled, UN trucks, men talking, yellow
Two hours down the road, the inhabitants of the town of Kuito still depend for their survival on the convoys of the World Food Program. 03.01.02
truck passes
But between the two towns is the open bush - controlled by UNITA guerrillas. They're not laying ambushes any more. But in every village along the route, the checkpoints are still there.
According to the Lusaka Agreement, there's suppose to be free passage throughout Angola. But travel through UNITA territory is still difficult and sometimes impossible.
Interview with manSuper:ISAIAS SAMAKUVA Samakuva:
There are still lots of distance between the two sites, people are still not trusting each other. 04.07.19
Chief Negotiator, UNITA Samakuva walking from car, speaking at conference
Holmes: Mr. Samakuva is UNITA'S chief representative at the Joint Commission which meets week after week in the capital, Luanda, to try to wrangle the peace process forward.
The main item on everyone's agenda, as it has been for months, is the snail's pace at which UNITA'S army is demobilising.
Helicopter, Fx: Helicoptor sound 04.48.00
solddiers, people and tents, men working, people walking
In a stretch of open bush near Huambo, the UN have set up one of four quartering centres, to register and disarm UNITA soldiers. According to the Lusaka Agreement UNITA's entire force of 60,000 should already have come into these camps on their way to join a new national army or to return to civilian life.
At the time we filmed, only 700 soldiers had surrendered. A dozen recent arrivals were lackadaisically building shelters for their families.
Under fierce international pressure, thousands more have come in recent days. But the process is still way behind schedule.
Jonathan Holmes to camera, CU soldiers, Holmes to camera
Holmes:
What those UNITA soldiers think about the future we don't know because they are not talking but ask the UN, the NGO's and especially ordinary Angolans whether this time there'll really be peace and all you'll get is a shrug. 05.43.13
Because they've seen it all before, just four years ago - the peace talks, the promises, the soldiers straggling in from the bush with old guns and new excuses.
dos Santos getting out of car, shaking hands, Sivimbi walking into room
President dos Santos of the MPLA and Dr. Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, both agreed to abide by the result of nationwide elections. 06.07.23
But Savimbi's elation and his respect for democracy were short lived. Soundly defeated at the polls, he turned again to the gun.
Bombed out Music 06.32.04
buildings,
tracking shot of damage buildings, people standing around Holmes: What followed was the most savage and destructive phase of this twenty-year old war. Towns like Kuito, government-held islands besiege for months by UNITA forces, took the brunt.
Pan up to child's face, Schaad speaking in car, trucks, people watching Schaad: When we first arrived here in late '93, these people were skin and bones, it was really bad, it's unbelievable what these people have put up with. 06.54.04
Super: David Schaad, World Food Program.
Holmes:
Through most of 1994, sporadic fighting continued. Kuito could only be supplied by air. It wasn't until late last year - months after the Lusaka Accord was signed - that the World Food Program was able to start supplying the town by road.
Children playing, girl washing, crippled man, grave site, sick baby crying, sick children
Most of Kuito's citizens still live in dire poverty, scrabbling a living in the ruins of their town. Backyards and empty lots are full of graves. Everyone has someone to mourn. 07.35.14
NB: In full version, Eduardo Mussongo appears here.
And people are still dying, not from shellfire and bullets, and not for the most part, in the towns.
The main victims are children - the main killer, Kwashiokor - a form of malnutrition that turns children into plump looking bundles of apathy.
Super: Elisabeth Neilsen, Medicins sans Frontieres Nielsen: Actually they are eating but it's not a balanced food, it means that they are not getting enough proteins.
(NB: Babys full name Belita Massozi.)
Holmes:
Children like Belita are dying because their fathers have no seed to plant and their fields are sown instead with landmines.
Interview with HawkinsSuper:PETER HAWKINSSave the Children (U.K.)
Hawkins:
The welfare in this country is probably at it's lowest at the moment. The under five infant mortality rate is 320 per 1000 - that's one in three children do not reach the age of five. That's the highest mortality rate in the world. 08.50.20
And yet it's a very very rich country. It produces 635,000 barrels of oil per day, the minerals - diamonds and other such minerals are immense. That is also part of the problem - the division of the richness of this country, the vision of the economic spoils creates the sort of problem we are seeing today.
Sunset, pan to building, interior with people eating and talking Holmes: In the seafront hotels and hilltop palaces of Luanda, a tiny elite of apparatchiks live high on the hog. 09.25.17
Angola's oil brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year. But the government has mortgaged much of that revenue for years ahead to pay for arms. The rest, it's rumoured, ends up in private bank accounts abroad.
Diamonds, aeriel shots of mine, map - Lucapa labelled, truck, men working If the MPLA has grown rich on oil, UNITA has mot of the diamonds. Angola has a good proportion of the finest gem diamonds in the world. 09.56.02
They're buried in the clay of the river valleys in the remote northeast. Four-fifths of the diamond region is controlled by UNITA. diamonds have financed its armies and its generals for years.
In the whole province of Lunda Norte, only a tiny area around the town of Lucapa is under government control.
Just outside the town, the government mining company, ENDIAMA, scoops and washes and filters the precious river gravel. But even here, there's fierce competition for the riches concealed in the mud.
Men with guns, aerial of river and mine It's a remote and lawless corner of the world. ENDIAMA trusts no one but it's own black-shirted private army to guard the mine sites. 11.05.02
Just down river, on land the government controls, swarms of illegal miners burrow into the clay. These are the garimpeiros, the diggers. They are heavily armed and trigger happy. This was the closest the company would allow us to go.
Men counting money Music 11.44.03
listening to music
market, soldier walking through crowd But in the market in the neighbouring village, it wasn't hard to track down the illegal diamond dealers.
The prices for everyday goods here are astronomical. With inflation running at several thousand percent a year, the Angolan kwanza is use for only the smallest purchases.
To buy diamonds, you need U.S. dollars. The majority of the diamonds bought and sol here end up being smuggled across the border to Zaire. And in fact very few of the smugglers end up in jail - because those who are supposed to catch them are busy - digging, dealing and smuggling for themselves.
Aerial of river an green fields, The government is now bringing in crack troops to clear the garimpeiros forcibly from the east bank of the river. 12.35.07
Holmes to camera
Holmes:
The one thing the government army is not going to do is to cross the river into those hills there because that's UNITA land and if it did that, it would be back to full scale war. 12.48.05
The fact is that land here in the Lundas is not just a matter of a strategic asset, of a military value, land here is diamonds and money, and many people believe that whatever UNITA says, it's not going to demobilise in this part of the world because to do so would be to lose its entire wealth.
Interview with CarneiroSuper:General HIGINO CARNEIROChief
Government Spokesperson Carneiro:
The UNITA troops must leave, that's what the Lusaka Agreement established, and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. They have to withdraw, otherwise they're violating the agreement. 13.17.20
Interview with Hawkins, damaged buildings, pan of flowers, children, damaged buildings and tanks
Hawkins:
Fourteen months down the line, the evidence is very very weak that this process will be able to succeed to its final conclusion. The fear is that the whole process will collapse in one form or another. 13.37.20
Holmes:
The churchbells are cracked, the churches are in ruins. But all over Angola, the faithful gather to pray for peace.
People playing Singing 14.16.21
music, singing,
dancing For decades, Angola's leaders were deaf to the voices of their own people - they were dancing to the tune of their cold war paymasters.
Now at last, the outside world has joined the chorus that's pleading to the end to the suffering. But oil and diamonds and the lure of absolute power make good earplugs.
There's still no certainty that the people will be heard.
George Negus
Negus:
Angola, dos Santos and Savimbi of course, are still talking about combining their forces and forming a government of national unity but don't hold your breath. 15.16.07