"In the years following peace, with the end of the war and high oil prices (until 2014), there was a time of reconstruction that could have been better used for the reconversion of the economy, especially in agricultural and agro-industrial projects, which are, by definition, medium and long term", stated Jaime Nogueira Pinto, in written statements to Lusa about 20 years of peace in Angola.
The 27-year civil war between the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party, and the Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola (MPLA, in power since independence) ended on 4 April 2002, with the signing of the peace accords, in Luena.
The also lawyer, with connections in African countries, stressed that after the beginning of peace there was a change of international protagonists in the country.
"The West - United States and Europe - was reluctant to support and trust Angola and the Angolans, which gave rise to the emergence and protagonism of China", he underlined.
As for the way peace was achieved in Angola, Jaime Nogueira Pinto highlighted the fact that it was "a long and painful process", with "many human costs" and "very conditioned by regional, international and ideological implications", as well as by the personality of the leaders, in an allusion, above all to Jonas Savimbi, on the UNITA side, who ended up being killed in combat, and to José Eduardo dos Santos, then President of Angola.
However, the peace process ended up generating "national unity" that "could already be seen in the fact that, unlike other African conflicts, there were no tribal massacres in the course of the war, or that both parties rejected the Schulz Plan".
"Thus, at the expense of two generations of Angolans, Angola was part of the normal process of creating states - war of independence and civil war. And the civil war, leading to refuge in cities, contributed to detribalization", he highlighted.
Over the course of time, "the way this peace process was conducted was highly conditioned by regional, international and ideological implications" as well as "by the personality of the leaders", stressed the analyst.
The integration of the military on the side of the vanquished, UNITA, into the Angolan Armed Forces, was for Jaime Nogueira Pinto a "decisive aspect", as well as the decision "not to criminalize anyone".
"It was thanks to that trust and forgetfulness that peace happened," he said.
"The peace process in Angola was long and painful, from the Bicesse Accords until the official conclusion of the war, on April 4, 2002. First, there was the attempt to reach an agreement, within the framework of pacifying the region and the end of the Cold War, a process in which the stalemate of the war from 1987-1988 and the situation in Cuito-Cuanavale was decisive, as it led to the first phase of deinternationalization of the conflict, with the independence of Namibia and the withdrawal of the Cubans, consecrated in the New York accords", he underlined.
The result "was also an integration at the level of the elites and leading cadres and a consequent pacification, which had this merit".
Even so, he concluded, "much remains to be done in the socio-economic field."
