African Leaders Reportedly Ignored Angola Sanctions

Two sitting African presidents are among several officials implicated in a U.N. report that details sanctions violations that have enabled rebels in Angola to finance their war, two sources who read the report said Friday.

Presidents Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso are accused of having allowed sanctions-breaking activities in their countries, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. Security Council imposed an arms and fuel embargo on UNITA rebels in 1993. Five years later, the Security Council expanded the measures to include a ban on diamond exports by rebels. The exports are estimated to have supplied the group with up to $4 billion since 1992.

Togo’s U.N. ambassador, Roland Yao Kpotstra, said late Friday that he understood that Togo was implicated but that he couldn’t comment until he had read the report. Officials at Burkina Faso’s mission said no one was available to comment.

In addition to the presidents, individuals and officials in Gabon, Rwanda, South Africa, Congo--including the late Mobutu Sese Seko, who led the nation then known as Zaire--the Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast are accused of violating the sanctions, the sources read in the report.

The violations included providing fuel and arms to UNITA--or, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola--allowing planes carrying banned items to refuel in their countries and dealing in banned UNITA diamonds, said a Western U.N. diplomat.

The document is to be released Wednesday.

The report recommends a three-year arms embargo on nations that supply UNITA with weapons. It also calls for a blacklist of nations that do business with UNITA, a source said.