Opening remarks

Mr. W.R. Beelaerts van Blokland

The title of the conference 'Angolan Reflections on Peace Building' held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague on 9 December 1999, emphasised the need to let Angolans talk about what they see as the best way to bring about peace in Angola. In the past, more than once, peace negotiations were held without any significant direct role or participation of Angolan civil society. As a result, the vast majority of the population were excluded from playing such a role. They were not part of the peace process and subsequently people did not 'own' or internalise the outcome of the negotiations of, for instance, the Lusaka Protocol. Now we have to face the fact, that it has not brought endurable peace. If there is one thing that our friends from Angola have tried to make clear to us at this conference, then it is the need to recognise that civil society should be involved and consulted when talking about peace building and reconciliation in Angola.

As such, the conference about the perspectives for peace building in Angola, gave an overwhelming quantity of inside information from experienced people involved with development and human rights issues on a daily basis. Angolan people, with a vision and with an impressive drive and motivation. Transparency and accountability are key words, which they often used at the conference. All this makes us, as part of the international community, aware of our responsibilities with regard to the situation in this potentially wealthy country. In Europe and North America we should be sensitive to the needs of the people in Angola and be aware about our own role and responsibilities. It is not just a matter of an internal conflict. We should therefore not look at short term emergency relief and humanitarian aid only – however very much needed – but also work on a long term basis to achieve sustainable peace, by maintaining and strengthening our support to civil society organisations in Angola and recognise the international dimension to conflicts in African countries such as Angola, the role of international trade, finance and investment.

The Angolan guests called upon us for support towards NGO's, churches, trade unions, the youth movement, the media and so forth. They also asked us to put Angola high on the international political agenda. As you know, the Dutch government, together with the Canadian government and our European partners, has consistently been trying to give priority to the situation in Angola in all its aspects, within the Security Council of the United Nations over the last number of years. We will continue doing so.

From our side we would like to encourage all organisations present at the conference to push through with initiatives to keep up the international attention for Angola. Therefore we would like to draw particular attention to one important recommendation which was proposed, the establishment of a joint independent North Atlantic initiative, to act as a centre of expertise on issues relating to Angola, monitoring relevant developments and to work together on areas such as information, research and action with the central objective to support the peace process in Angola. We therefore would like to call upon the organisers of the conference, the Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) and the Interchurch Organisation for Development Co-operation (ICCO), and its supporters, to take further steps to help making international social responsibility in this context real.