Report on Sanctions Abuses Irks Africans

Several African nations accused of violating sanctions against Angola’s rebels criticized the U.N. report containing the charges. Other diplomats questioned the evidence supporting the accusations, including charges that the presidents of two nations helped arm UNITA rebels. The chairman of the U.N. Sanctions Committee on Angola, Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, defended the report as solid and meticulous. The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on UNITA in 1993, expanding it in 1998 to include diamond exports, which have been worth billions to UNITA.