United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM): the Dutch contribution
On 31 May 1991, the Dutch government decided to take part in UNAVEM II and the Netherlands promised 15 military and 10 police observers. In groups of 5, the military observers’ first task was to supervise the joint commissions who had to check the cantonment of all MPLA and UNITA soldiers in 50 assembly areas (AAs).
The idea was that cantonment would be followed by disarmament. Some of the soldiers would then be sent home, while those remaining were to form the basis for a new national Angolan army. The observers also monitored observance of the ceasefire, which lasted until September 1992. In the meantime, the cantonment, disarmament and demobilisation were suffering major delays and not even half the troops had been demobilised by September 1992.
Elections
The electoral registration was in the meantime proceeding extremely favourably, and there were no incidents worthy of mention during the election campaign. Many military and police observers underwent a crash course as election observers. Together with several 100 international civil election observers, they ensured the smooth running of the presidential elections and the election of the legislative assembly on 29 and 30 September 1992.
The elections were won by the MPLA. UNITA, however, accused the MPLA of election fraud, discounted the result and dug up the hatchet. Many of the observer teams literally ended up in the line of fire. In January 1993, UNAVEM was even forced to evacuate 45 UN locations.
Dutch contribution
The number of Dutch personnel rose in the 1st half of 1993 to 2 military observers and 2 marechaussees. This situation remained unchanged until January 1995. In November 1994, UNITA and the MPLA signed the Lusaka protocol. Both parties consented to a new and larger UN operation in Angola, UNAVEM III. The lion’s share of UNAVEM III would be made up of 7.000 infantry personnel and more than 400 observers. The Netherlands also contributed to the expansion of the observer corps with 20 Dutch military and police observers arriving in January 1995.
Failure of the protocol
The implementation of the Lusaka protocol was suffering considerable delays, however. UNITA in particular was dragging its heels with the demobilisation of large numbers of troops. Another reason for the collapse was the flow of refugees from neighbouring Zaïre (Congo), which consisted partly of former soldiers from the Zaïrian state army who were offering their services to UNITA.
UNITA also refused to give up its interests in the diamond-rich regions in the north-eastern provinces, which UNITA was using to fund its war effort. When UNAVEM III's mandate expired, the Dutch government decided not to participate in the proposed new mission and the last Dutch observers went home on 5 July 1997.