SA AND BOTSWANA AGREE TO WATCH UNITA CLOSELY.

South Africa and Botswana on Thursday agreed to step up efforts to keep track of violations of United Nations sanctions against the Angolan rebel movement Unita. They discussed the issue at the second session of the joint permanent commission on defence and security, held in Centurion outside Pretoria. A statement issued afterwards said: "The need was expressed to intensify co-operation with a view to enhance monitoring efforts that have been put in place in the two countries and the region at large." The UN Security Council imposed an arms and fuel embargos on Unita in 1993, a year before a UN-brokered peace agreement between the two sides, which first went to war after Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In 1998, six months before the war resumed, the council expanded the measures to include a ban on rebel diamond exports, which are estimated to have supplied Unita with up to US4-billion (around R40-billion) since 1992. As major diamond-producing countries, South Africa and Botswana have in the past expressed fears that Unita's diamond smuggling could harm legitimate trade within their own borders. The two-day session, which ended on Thursday, was attended by Cabinet members from Botswana and South Africa. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota led the South African delegation, while the Botswana group was headed by Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Thebe Mogami. The two countries also ...