Young soldiers fight in Angola
Oliver Martin

With the United Nations now on the verge of leaving Angola, the past practice of recruiting child soldiers to fight in the war is starting up once again.

Following last week’s announcement by Secretary General Kofi Annan, the UN is determined to abandon its peace-observer mission in this hostile African nation. Annan stated the two parties in the long standing civil war, the government of Angola and UNITA (the Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), were not committed to the terms of the 1994 peace agreement. The UN pull-out is also a result of two UN chartered planes shot down last month.

When the UN leaves, many aid agencies are warning that the press gangs, once used to capture children and teenagers into military service will once again enter into the cities. Angola does not have a consistent draft system, but in times of need the government has demanded that younger men register and then called them up for duty. It has not come to that in the city of Luanda yet. A period of draft registration started last week for 18 to 20-year-olds. Almost immediately, lines started to form around police stations as the young men lined up to comply. Many police stations quickly ran out of registration forms which left large crowds of men waiting around aimlessly.

Rumors started to circulate there were 170 draft exemption cards to be handed out in the district and 160 had been sold to rich families.

In long civil wars, military analysts say the odds favor the government. It keeps finding new offshore oil reserves, while the diamond-studded riverbeds that fund the war machine of Savimbi, the UNITA leader, have been heavily dug over and require expensive deep mining. It is widely believed UNITA is using child soldiers and it is just a matter of time before the rebel movement begins to enslave children into their ranks. The UN says it can do nothing.